Rodolfo Cuenca

Rodolfo Cuenca (May 1, 1928 – October 2023), sometimes known by his nickname, Rudy Cuenca, was a Filipino businessman best known as the chairman of the Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines (CDCP), which is known today as the Philippine National Construction Corporation. He was a close associate of Ferdinand Marcos, and was noted not to be embarrassed by "his much-criticized close association with Marcos and his being tagged as a crony."

Early life and education Rodolfo Cuenca was born on May 1, 1928, at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila, to Nicolas and Cristina Cuenca. He was the eldest among four children. Cuenca spent his early years in Vigan, as his father was assigned as district engineer in Ilocos Sur. In 1937, the family transferred to Bulacan, where Cuenca finished his fourth and fifth grade. He continued sixth grade in Ateneo de Manila on Padre Faura Street, then transferred to the Intramuros campus for his seventh grade.

During the Second World War, Cuenca withdrew from high school and worked some jobs, one of which was at the General Engineering Depot for the US Army in Malolos, Bulacan. In 1946, he returned to Ateneo to finish high school. He then enrolled at the Far Eastern University to study commerce, Under the Republic Act (RA) 3741, private contractors were allowed to bid for government infrastructure projects. In 1967, the CDCP won government contracts to build the Manila North and South Expressways, valued at just over $16 million. These frequent golf sessions would continue well into the Martial Law era. For Marcos' re-election campaign in 1969, Cuenca again played the role of fundraiser. to build the San Juanico Bridge, which crossed the San Juanico Strait and connected the two then-underdeveloped islands of Leyte and Samar. With a total length of , it remains the longest bridge spanning a body of seawater in the Philippines.

It was touted as President Ferdinand Marcos' "birthday gift" to his wife Imelda, and Completed four years later, it was inaugurated on July 2, 1973 - Imelda Marcos' birthday.

Upon its completion, economists and public works engineers tagged it as a "white elephant" which was "constructed several decades too soon",

In the decades after the Marcoses administration, economic activity in Samar and Leyte finally caught up with the bridge's intended function, and it has become an iconic tourist attraction acknowledged as "part of the identity of people in Samar and Leyte." claiming that the respondents had engaged in “schemes, devices or stratagems” to acquire ill-gotten wealth. On August 5, 2010, the Sandiganbayan dismissed the case after throwing out 60 of the 100 documentary exhibits presented by the PCGG at the trial because they were photocopies, rather than originals of the documents.