Former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary for operations Roberto Bernardo dropped more high-profile figures as the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s legislative inquiry into questionable flood control corruption continued on Thursday.
In a sworn statement he signed in the presence of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, Bernardo revealed that the extent of corruption involved former Senate President Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero, former senator and now Makati City Mayor Nancy Binay, former Senator Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla, Jr., Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, Commission on Audit (COA) Commissioner Mario Lipana, and Education Undersecretary Trygve Olaivar.
Bernardo admitted he was aware of the dishonest contracting practices of the people below him including the so-called ‘BGC Boys,’ which include members of the DPWH Bulacan first district engineering office (DEO) such as Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez, Jaypee Mendoza, and Arjay Domasig.
He, however, claimed he had no personal knowledge of the exact actions they took and relied on secondhand information from the dismissed engineers in question.
“According to Brice Hernandez, their sharing is 20-20-20-40 percent from these activities. My understanding is that they had prepared and signed documents for purposes of collecting payments, which they then apportioned the profits among themselves,” Bernardo said.
“However, I must admit that I have no personal knowledge on the exact actions they took, accomplished in this scheme, and I can only be asked general questions on the systems in place that would have allowed this modus operandi to happen,” he continued.
Bernardo claimed he had neither knowledge nor participation in the ghost project transactions and pointed to Alcantara and his underlings as the ones most responsible in the anomalous activities.
The former DPWH undersecretary also mentioned that Co once called him and confirmed whether Alcantara was “easy to deal with” to which he said “yes.” He said he was informed by the former district engineer that the party-list lawmaker asked for 25-percent “commission” from the projects.
“Out of that amount two-percent was to be shared equally between Engr. Alcantara and myself. In his (Alcantara’s) words: ‘Boss, let us split the two percent between us.’ Furthermore, Engr. Alcantara would tell me every time that he made deliveries of cash to Congressman Zaldy Co in compliance with his commitment to Congressman Zaldy Co,” Bernardo said.
With respect to Escudero, Bernardo said he was connected to him through their mutual “close friend” Maynard Ngu, who contributed to the lawmaker’s recent senatorial campaign. Ngu is the chief executive officer and founder of Cosmic Technologies, the company behind Cherry Mobile.
“Maynard Ngu asked me to submit a list of projects. I personally submitted a list of projects to Maynard Ngu and some of the items therein pertaining to Valenzuela and Marinduque projects were subsequently included in the General Appropriations Act (GAA),” Bernardo said.
“When I gave him (Ngu) the list and in relation to the commitment, I asked him: ‘Boss, paano to? (How would you like to proceed?) Maynard replied: ‘Bahala ka na’ (It’s up to you). I asked: ‘Boss, is 20 percent, okay?’ Maynard said: ‘OK,’” he added, revealing how their conversation went.
“After inclusion of the projects in the GAA, I delivered 20-percent of approximately P800-million or about P160-million to Maynard Ngu, which was meant for Senator Escudero.”
Other individuals linked to the widening network of corruption were coursed through the central figures of the DPWH Bulacan first DEO via unprogrammed appropriations, including alleged transactions with Lipana and Olaivar—the latter of whom was connected to Revilla—according to Bernardo.
Olaivar allegedly summoned him to discuss a cut from the unprogrammed funds supposedly for the Office of the Executive Secretary. Bernardo then relayed it to the DPWH Bulacan DEO, after which Alcantara prepared a list of projects worth P2.85-billion.
Bernardo briefly left with Remulla after reading his sworn statement, so he could apply for the Witness Protection Program, which Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chairman Panfilo Lacson allowed with the permission of his colleagues.
