2 months ago
41
Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!
Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.
Visit Suniway.ph to learn
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate Blue Ribbon committee has subpoenaed documents of the Department of Public Works and Highways after Senate President Pro Tempore and Blue Ribbon chair Panfilo Lacson discovered that former DPWH chief Manuel Bonoan “deliberately” submitted incorrect grid coordinates that led to the “bloated” figures representing ghost flood control projects in the Sumbong sa Pangulo website.
Lacson said the submission of incorrect coordinates amounted to misleading Malacañang.
“Not technically. He tricked the President,” Lacson said during the Kapihan sa Senado forum yesterday, explaining that wrong coordinates would inevitably result in inspection teams finding no projects at listed sites.
Lacson said documents Bonoan submitted to Malacañang prompted the DPWH to re-validate about 8,000 projects listed in the Sumbong sa Pangulo portal.
“I received reliable information that former DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan deliberately submitted to Malacañang incorrect grid coordinates of thousands of flood control projects all over the country,” Lacson said, adding that the discrepancy was discovered when the DPWH began reconciling records using its Multi-Year Planning and Scheduling system and Project and Contract Management Application.
He said DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon would send two undersecretaries for next week’s Blue Ribbon hearing, as well as documents that the committee subpoenaed, intended to shed light on the alleged cover-up by Bonoan.
Lacson explained that the alleged falsification inflated the number of supposed ghost projects because composite inspection teams from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police and the Department of Economy, Planning and Development would be sent to the wrong locations.
“Therefore, they would report those projects as ghost. The outcome would be that 421 is too bloated a number. So substantially the number of ghost flood control projects should be lower,” he said.
Asked whether the submission of incorrect data was intentional, Lacson replied, “Yes, (my source is) very reliable,” adding that a witness is willing to testify next week.
He said the DPWH is now attempting to correct the data by matching grid coordinates with its long-term planning records to determine the actual locations of projects.
On Bonoan’s possible liability, Lacson said even if the former DPWH chief was not the principal actor, the alleged cover-up pointed to complicity.
Lacson said Bonoan is currently in the United States and that authorities are aware of his whereabouts.
He said the Senate would issue a subpoena, warning that failure to comply could lead to contempt and a warrant for his arrest.
If backed by evidence, the government should file a case and cancel Bonoan’s passport, House public accounts panel chair and Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said yesterday.
Ridon said the government should also file extradition proceedings against Bonoan to compel him to return to the country.
“To be clear, it was secretary Bonoan that originated the 2026 NEP (National Expenditure Program). But along the way, Sec. Vince Dizon, the new secretary, had intervened in several occasions into the budget. So they had been amended NEP,” Ridon said during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.
Romualdez-Discaya link?
Lacson also dared Sen. Imee Marcos to help the Blue Ribbon committee look into the alleged role of her cousin, former speaker Martin Romualdez, in the flood control scandal, instead of making baseless criticisms of the Senate probe into public works corruption.
“This is what I’m advising to Sen. Imee Marcos. Noise does not convict, neither does it indict who may be perceived as the most guilty in the flood control project saga. Only evidence does,” Lacson said.
Lacson said he, as Blue Ribbon chair, would even be willing to give Marcos one hour to testify against Romualdez, whom she alleged to be the mastermind in the flood control mess when the latter was speaker.
Lacson denied limiting the time for the minority to implicate big names, as he slammed Marcos for criticizing the hearings when she was not even active nor did she attend the Blue Ribbon.
Lacson also said he has reliable information that Romualdez bought a house at a posh Makati subdivision using detained flood control contractor Sarah Discaya as a “front.”
The Blue Ribbon will invite the previous owner of the property to testify about this alleged transaction, Lacson said.
Romualdez’s camp has denied Lacson’s allegation.
“With reference to recent news reports linking former speaker Romualdez to the Discayas through an alleged property purchase, he has no knowledge nor involvement in the purported transaction,” Ade Fajardo, his counsel, clarified, calling the report “outright baseless.”
Zaldy passport cancellation upheld
The Sandiganbayan upheld its earlier ruling ordering the cancellation of the passport of resigned Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co as he is considered a “fugitive from justice.”
In a nine-page resolution promulgated on Jan. 8, the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division has denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Rondain & Mendiola, the law firm representing Co, seeking the reversal of the court’s Dec. 10 resolution declaring Co a “fugitive from justice” and ordering the cancellation of his passport.
The Fifth Division said Co has no legal standing to seek any judicial relief from the court as he has yet to submit himself to its jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, luxury vehicles allegedly linked to Co supposedly contained firearms, which prompted authorities to secure a search warrant and conduct a nighttime raid on Jan. 8.
Brig. Gen. Hansel Marantan, director of the Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group, said when his team obtained a report on Dec. 21, 2025, that luxury cars registered under Co’s companies were parked at a condominium unit in Taguig, they were expecting “spurious documents and contraband inside.”
Asked what the contraband was, Marantan said, “The report to us was firearms.”
ICI special adviser Rodolfo Azurin Jr. previously told The STAR that the vehicles only contained “empty boxes.”
Meanwhile, for House deputy minority leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, the DPWH allocation formula, known as the “Baselined-Balanced-Managed or BBM Formula” and sometimes referred to as the “Cabral formula,” has exposed that the “big fish” proponents are responsible for the pork barrel insertions in the national budget.
According to Tinio, the formula, attributed to the late DPWH undersecretary Catalina Cabral, is the smoking gun in the flood control mess. – Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Delon Porcalla, Jose Rodel Clapano, Elizabeth Marcelo, Emmanuel Tupas, EJ Macababbad
