DPWH man in ‘bribe try’ turns tables on Leviste
A suspended government engineer accused of corruption for trying to bribe Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste said that the lawmaker tried to “instigate” him into committing the crime as part of a “political agenda” against former Congressman Eric Buhain.
In the counteraffidavit he submitted to the provincial prosecutor on Friday, Batangas first district engineer Abelardo Calalo strongly denied he tried to bribe Leviste and that he supposedly informed the congressman of “corrupt practices involving the contractors” and Buhain, the rival Leviste defeated in last May’s midterm polls.
“I vehemently deny the accusations against me,” he said. “The same are either contrived or founded on a twisting of the truth, and clearly as part of a political agenda.”
He said the money that was seized from him when he was arrested at Leviste’s office on Aug. 22, amounting to P3.1 million, was a “donation” from one private contractor from whom he had solicited funds to support Leviste’s projects in the province upon the “explicit instructions” of Uswag Ilonggo Party-list Rep. Jojo Ang.
Beach club meeting
He said he first met Leviste in December 2024 at Matabungkay Beach Club where he was invited by the staff of Sen. Loren Legarda, Leviste’s mother.
“He made inquiries about ongoing projects within the district and I respectfully answered all his queries,” Calalo said in his counteraffidavit.
After the midterm elections, he said he was again “summoned” by Legarda’s staff to a meeting which was attended also by Leviste and Ang where the two discussed with him the funds from 2020 to 2025 and the proposed 2026 budget for the first district of Batangas.
On May 28, Ang allegedly told him to collect contributions from contractors with 2025 projects from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in his district for Leviste’s projects, Calalo said. He did not say what these projects were.
Ang could not be reached for comment.
No such instructions
Sought for comment, Leviste denied giving instructions to Ang to collect donations from contractors in his district.
“I can say this: Not once in my meeting with him (Calalo) did he mention the name of the congressman that you talked about (Ang),” Leviste told the Inquirer.
He said that Ang had “nothing to do with projects” in the first district of Batangas and had no direct or indirect projects in his district.
Calalo said Leviste visited him at his office on Aug. 14, asking him to name the contractors of alleged substandard projects awarded by Buhain so that he could have them punished.
He told Leviste he had no personal knowledge about such projects and could not provide him the information.
“I could see that he was dissatisfied with my answer, and I suspected that he intended for me to be removed from my position and be replaced by a district engineer of his choice, which was true,” Calalo said.
Project bidding
He said that during his Aug. 22 meeting with Leviste, the congressman wanted to discuss whether project bidding was fixed and that the lawmaker was the first to mention the percentages of money from contractors.
Leviste allegedly also kept on asking him if it was true that the results of most of the project bidding in their district was predetermined by Buhain.
Calalo said he insisted he could not give information on something he knew nothing about and Leviste became frustrated.
Then, “out of nowhere” Leviste allegedly asked how much would be the total of the 10 percent contributions from the contractors.
Despite his confusion, he said this would amount to around P360 million.
“Cong. Leviste then asked me if ‘meron ka bang dala ngayon’ (did you bring some with you)?” Calalo said, “I told him that I have a small amount donated by a contractor but I would just deliver the donations through his assistant, when more contractors have made donations for his projects.”
‘Instigation, not entrapment’
But Leviste allegedly insisted on getting even the small amount “para masimulan na natin (so we can start),” Calalo said.
A few minutes after he returned from his car with the money, Calalo said the police arrived and arrested and handcuffed him.
He noted that Leviste did not receive or even touch the money he carried.
Leviste said in the interview with the Inquirer that Calalo himself admitted that he collected money from contractors as donation “and the money came with a receipt.”
The freshman lawmaker said he was already considering having Calalo sacked “not because tao siya ni Buhain (he is Buhain’s guy)” but because in previous conversations, the engineer himself said that “the biddings in the first district of Batangas were not ‘real biddings.’”
“So if this is happening in the procurement of the DPWH 1st District Batangas projects, then the obvious step is to replace the head of office who oversees these projects,” he said.
Leviste said Ang was one of the many lawmakers that he had sought advice from on how to handle infrastructure projects in his district, “including problems with personnel, including (possibly) replacing Calalo.”
“His own affidavit would affirm that I was not aware (of this arrangement with Ang) and that was why, at the meeting, I was shocked that he so openly brought up (the donations from contractors),” he said.
For ‘zero corruption’
Leviste also stressed that it was Calalo, not him, who first broached the matter of “donations” as “support” for his endeavors in the district.
“I never asked for donations,” he said. “There is not a single person who can say that I am asking anything from contractors because I want there to be zero corruption in the bidding of projects.”
At least, Leviste pointed out, Calalo admitted he had indeed collected money from contractors but questioned why he did not identify them in his counteraffidavit.
He said a receipt that came with the cash Calalo carried, showed the money came from Toptech Construction Inc., one of the contractors that won contracts for the Binambang river wall protection projects that he found to be substandard.
Calalo omitted from his affidavit another contractor who was willing to give an initial P15 million, and that he had spoken with many other contractors who were ready to give “support,” Leviste said.
