Bonoan cleared to leave for US
A week after he was recommended for investigation in connection with the corruption scandal hounding the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the agency’s former chief, Manuel Bonoan, has been allowed to travel to the United States to accompany his wife who is scheduled for a medical procedure.
Department of Justice (DOJ) spokesperson Raphael Martinez told reporters on Tuesday that “currently there exists no legal prohibition to Bonoan’s constitutional right to travel.”
In a statement, the Bureau of Immigration said “immigration officers immediately coordinated with the DOJ to verify if a hold departure order (HDO) or warrant of arrest was in effect. The DOJ confirmed that none exists, hence, he was cleared to depart.”
Bonoan had been the subject of an immigration lookout bulletin order recommened by Vince Dizon, his successor in the DPWH. But the lookout order does not bar his departure.
ICI recommendation
Bonoan, who resigned on Aug. 31, is the second high-profile official to be out of the country while facing investigation over questionable flood control projects, after resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co.
The Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) on Nov. 4 recommended an investigation covering the former public works chief, after finding him liable for a nonexistent flood works project in Bulacan for which P95.04 million had been allocated.
Blue ribbon inquiry
The commission also recommended the filing of administrative charges against Bonoan in connection with another “ghost” project in Bulacan involving riverbank works worth P72.4 million.
Also on Tuesday, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson said the Senate blue ribbon committee will invite Co to attend the resumption of its inquiry.
Lacson said Co, who has yet to surface in public or make known his whereabouts after leaving for the United States in July reportedly for medical treatment, may join the hearing online.
“We’re extending our invitation to Zaldy Co if he can participate via Zoom. Of course, if he is abroad—as we all know, most probably he’s abroad. So his testimony will not be valid unless he is in the premises of the Philippine Embassy in the country where he is,” Lacson told reporters on Tuesday.
Co was already out of the country when he was implicated by two dismissed DPWH officials as among the lawmakers who allegedly received kickbacks from anomalous flood control projects.
According to Henry Alcantara and Brice Hernandez, two engineers then under the DPWH office in Bulacan’s first district, Co had managed to get as much as P86 billion from DPWH contracts since 2016.
Co resigned as congressman on Sept. 29, saying in his letter to House Speaker Faustino Dy III that he was forced to quit because of the “real, direct, grave and imminent threat to the lives of my family members and me and the evident denial of my right to due process of law.”
Lacson on Tuesday said that “If he (Co) cannot physically go to an embassy to testify so his testimony can be valid even after testifying, a consulate official can affirm his testimony.’’
“For example, he made the testimony on Friday, he can go to the consul’s office on Saturday. His testimony can be affirmed then, as long as it is truthful, nothing added, nothing subtracted,” said the senator, who returned as chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee. —WITH A REPORT FROM KATHLEEN DE VILLA
