Dismissed DPWH exec swiftly found ‘guilty’ in his admin cases
On the day he was dismissed from government service, former Bulacan first district engineer Henry Alcantara was also found guilty in multiple administrative cases that former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan had filed against him.
A copy of the decision signed by newly appointed Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon on Thursday that was released on Friday showed that Alcantara, who was linked to anomalous flood control projects in Bulacan province, was guilty of “disloyalty to the Republic of the Philippines and to the Filipino people, grave misconduct, gross neglect in the performance of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.”
Alcantara was slapped with the penalty of “dismissal from the service with the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification to hold public office.”
“This decision is without prejudice to the filing of separate civil or criminal charges against him and his coconspirators,” Dizon said in the decision.
On Thursday, Dizon confirmed the dismissal of Alcantara, who was recently promoted to officer-in-charge assistant regional director of the DPWH in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon).
Bonoan, whose resignation as DPWH secretary was accepted by President Marcos on Aug. 31 amid the investigation into corruption-tainted flood control projects around the country, served as the complainant in the administrative cases against Alcantara.
The charges were filed on Aug. 26 after an investigation, its findings contained in a Special Audit Report dated Aug. 25, was conducted.
The investigation found that “no actual project works exists despite full payment of the infrastructure project.” It was referring to the construction of a P55-million reinforced concrete river wall at Purok 4, Barangay Piel, in Baliwag, Bulacan, that was supposed to be completed on June 30 this year.
An Internal Audit Service Report also found that “no structure was found” for a contract on the construction of a flood control structure along the Maycapiz-Taliptip River at Barangay Perez in Bulakan town despite being paid in full by the DPWH. It said the project also had incomplete documents.
‘Ridicule, humiliation’
“Respondent’s (Alcantara’s) failure to safeguard public interest resulting in the payment of ‘ghost’ projects tarnished the image and integrity of [the] DPWH. Different social media platforms subjected [the] DPWH to ridicule, humiliation, and disrespect. Thus, Respondent should be held liable for conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service,” Dizon said in the order.
After announcing the decision on Friday, Dizon, in a statement, said he would recommend the filing of criminal charges against Alcantara and other people involved “to achieve justice for their embezzlement of public funds.”
“This is a warning to DPWH officials and personnel responsible for ghost and substandard projects, because as the President said, we will not let the corrupt in government go unpunished,” Dizon said in a statement written in Filipino.
Alcantara was also included in the list of 26 people whom Dizon recommended to the Department of Justice to be covered by an immigration lookout bulletin for their alleged involvement in “anomalies” in flood control projects across the country.
Earlier, Dizon also ordered the legal division of the DPWH to recommend plunder charges to the Office of the Ombudsman against Alcantara; his successor, Brice Ericson Hernandez; and Jaypee Mendoza, former chief of the Bulacan first engineering district’s construction section.
“This is obviously criminal,” Dizon told reporters after inspecting one of the so-called ghost projects in Plaridel, Bulacan, on Thursday. “This is plunder, almost P100 million stolen.”
