SO IT’S SWORN in and made official: Henry Alcantara was named as the masterminds in orchestrating the flood control bribery scheme that enabled lawmakers to receive billions of pesos in payoffs.
In a statement submitted to the Department of Justice (DOJ), two former district engineers of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) tagged their former chief, Alcantara and John Carlo Rivera, Alcantara’s chief-of-staff, as the brains in the scheme.
Erstwhile DPWH project engineers Brice Hernandez and Jaypee Mendoza both pointed to Alcantara. The three lawmakers from Bulacan were also said to have received in kickbacks from flood control programs in their respective district.
HE DICTATED!
In their affidavit, Hernandez and Mendoza alleged that Alcantara was the person who “chose contractors, dictated percentage cuts and turned legitimate flood control budgets into structured bribes.”
They cited that their former boss coordinated directly with senators and congressmen who acted as “proponents”, deciding which projects would appear in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) or the General Appropriations Act (GAA) and setting the exact share each participant would receive.
“Every large cash movement, ranging from ₱100 million to as much as ₱1.2 billion per run, moved on Alcantara’s instruction,” the two former DWPH pointed out.
Both officials also identified Rivera as the operation’s logistics and records chief, who prepared and consolidated the project summaries used for the insertions, organized the packing of cash into boxes or luggage, instructed drivers and coordinated the drop-off points.
“Rivera maintained contemporaneous lists and digital screenshots showing the amounts due to each proponent and verified every delivery,” they stated while noting it was Alcantara who designed the processing and his chief-of-staff who executed and documented it.
‘(Alcantara) coordinated directly with senators and congressmen who acted as “proponents”, deciding which projects would appear in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) or the General Appropriations Act (GAA) and setting the exact share each participant would receive. Every large cash movement, ranging from ₱100 million to as much as ₱1.2 billion per run, moved on Alcantara’s instruction.’
RECIPIENTS, PROTECTORS
Hernandez and Mendoza’s affidavit also mentioned lawmakers from the first, second and fifth congressional districts of Bulacan as local recipients and protectors of the operation, receiving a six-percent pass through share from every project collection routed through the office of Alcantara.
The lawmakers who were in office that time were Bulacan representatives Danny Domingo of the District I and Augustina Dominique Pancho of District II and former representative Ambrosio Cruz Jr. of District V.
Domingo, Pancho and Cruz have yet to respond to the allegations but in an earlier Facebook post, Domingo denied he was involved in the flood control scandal when he was named in an earlier Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing.
The two former engineers also linked dismissed Ako Bicol party-list solon Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co, senators Joel Villanueva, and Jose Jinggoy (Estrada) Ejercito Jr., former public works undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, Commission on Audit (COA) commissioner Mario Lipana, and former Caloocan City District II legislator Mary Mitzi Cajayon Uy, who the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) had recommended be charged over the scandal.
CHARGES FILED
Meanwhile, the ICI earleir recommended the filing of administrative charges against former DPWH secretary Manuel ‘Manny’ Bonoan, former undersecretaries Bernard and Maria Catalina Cabral, Alcantara, Brice Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Ernesto Galang, John Carlo Rivera, John Michael Marcos, Claudine Magdalene Magsakay and Ericka Justine Chico.
According to ICI Chairperson retired Supreme Court associate justice Andres Reyes Jr., “the Commission emphasizes that it does not make categorical findings of guilt and that responsibility for determining liability rests with the proper authorities.”