DOJ has not received Alcantara “recantation”
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it had not received any affidavit from dismissed Bulacan First District Engineering Office chief Henry Alcantara retracting his earlier statements saying that he gave kickbacks to lawmakers from anomalous flood control projects.
Undersecretary Polo Martinez, the DOJ spokesperson, said in a statement on Saturday that there has been “no official recantation by Alcantara whether written or verbal” of his official testimony before ongoing investigations of the anomalous, substandard and ghost flood control projects in Bulacan province.
“For the record, the DOJ has not received or reviewed any affidavit from Henry Alcantara retracting his previous statements,” he said.
A report about Alcantara’s supposed recantation in a counter-affidavit came from a lawyer for Sen. Joel Villanueva, whom Alcantara had pointed to as among the senators who had allegedly received kickbacks from public works projects.
On Sept. 23, 2025, Alcantara told a Senate blue ribbon committee inquiry into the flood control scandal that he handed P150 million in kickbacks to an aide of Villanueva, telling him to inform the senator that this was his “help for whatever future plans that he has.” He added, however, that Villanueva was unaware that the money came from a flood control project.
Alcantara said he also delivered kickbacks to resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Elizalde “Zaldy” Co at the ex-congressman’s residence at Valle Verde 6 subdivision in Pasig City and at the parking lot of a plush hotel in Taguig City. He clarified that he did not hand over the money directly to Co but to the former Ako Bicol representative’s aides.
Millions already returned
Alcantara had returned about P181.37 million in cash to the government as restitution for his share of the kickbacks—P110 million in November 2025 and P71.37 million in the following month. The money was part of P300 million in illegally amassed wealth that Alcantara reportedly committed to return to the government.
When he received the first installment in November, acting Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida said that what Alcantara did was “a sign of good faith” and proof of his desire to help the government.
Alcantara has been provisionally admitted to the Witness Protection Program (WPP), receiving only government protection. Once admitted, he will be immune from suit, but only from charges in cases he would testify on.
Vida said restitution was only one of the factors being considered in determining whether a person can be a state witness.
In his September 2025 testimony to the Senate blue ribbon committee, Alcantara also named former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Senator Jinggoy Estrada and former Caloocan Rep. Mitch Cajayon-Uy of involvement in budget insertions and kickbacks from government projects.
Villanueva, Co and the other lawmakers he had named have all rejected his allegations and denied any wrongdoing.
According to Alcantara, Co was the “top proponent” of flood control insertions amounting to P35 billion from 2022 to 2025.
Insertion
He said Public Works Undersecretary Robert Bernardo, who has been dismissed, was his boss in the anomalous flood control projects. Bernardo allegedly told him about a P300-million insertion in the 2024 national budget intended for Revilla, who lost his reelection bid in the 2025 midterm polls.
He implicated Estrada in P355 million worth of projects, saying that during the 2024 Senate budget hearing, Bernardo told him the amount was intended for the senator. Alcantara, however, said that he had no direct communication with the senator.
Uy allegedly received 10 percent of P411 million from the 2022 budget insertion and that he allegedly handed this amount to her at a restaurant in Quezon City.
Alcantara also told the senators that Commission on Audit chief Mario Lipana had requested a list of flood control projects in Bulacan in 2022 that led to an alleged budget insertion of P1.4 billion from 2023 to 2025—P500 million in 2023 in unprogrammed appropriations, P400 million in 2024 under the National Expenditure Program (NEP), and P500 million in 2025 also in the NEP.
Cases in Om
Alcantara said that he was unaware that Lipana’s wife was the president and general manager of Olympus Mining and Builders Group Philippines Corp., a company that won at least nine public works contracts in Bulacan worth P326.6 million, in addition to earlier projects amounting to P178.5 million.
Lipana, who was on medical leave when Alcantara testified in the Senate and has not publicly responded to his allegations.
The scandal over ghost or substandard flood control projects unraveled in August after President Marcos revealed that close to 20 percent of over P500 billion spent for flood mitigation was controlled by only 15 out of more than 2,000 construction companies, several with direct links to lawmakers.
At least two sets of cases involving public works corruption and kickbacks had been filed by the Ombudsman against private contractors and at least one lawmaker, Co, and government engineers, including Alcantara. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
