Former DPWH exec links Jinggoy, Joel to kickbacks
A former assistant district engineer of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on Tuesday implicated Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva in the alleged corruption in flood control projects, an accusation the two lawmakers denied.
At the second House infrastructure committee hearing on the anomalous projects, Brice Hernandez said Estrada and Villanueva received at least 30 percent in kickbacks from nearly P1 billion worth of flood control projects in Bulacan.
Hernandez testified that Estrada maneuvered to allocate P355 million in the 2023 national budget and Villanueva appropriated P600 million in the 2025 budget for funding in the province’s first district.
For this, they allegedly got a 30-percent cut as “standard operating procedure,” Hernandez said, as he appealed to the House not to send him back to the Senate where he is supposed to serve detention for a contempt citation.
On Tuesday, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said he and Speaker Martin Romualdez had agreed that Hernandez should be detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center but remain under the supervision of the Office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms.
In his testimony, Hernandez said: “Sen. (Panfilo) Lacson is right that the engineers of the DPWH seem to have become legmen or bagmen. If you ask me for whom we became bagmen, I will answer now. Sen. Rodante Marcoleta said yesterday, ‘you’re safe now.’ This is not true.”
He was referring to Marcoleta’s remark to Estrada during Monday’s Senate blue ribbon committee hearing where contractor couple Curlee and Sarah Discaya named several House members and DPWH officials as kickback recipients but did not include any senator on the list.
List of projects
“Nagbaba po si Sen. Jinggoy (Sen. Jinggoy dumped money here) and his ‘standard operating procedure’ (SOP) here is 30 percent as per our district engineer Henry Alcantara. These (the money) were delivered when these items came out of the GAA (General Appropriations Act),” Hernandez said.
“In 2023, Sen. Joel Villanueva released P600M [million] and the SOP is 30 percent,” the engineer added.
His former boss, then district engineer Alcantara, was the “chief implementer” of these projects and instructed DPWH staff members Christian Santiago and Andrei Balatbat to deliver the cash to Estrada.
In Villanueva’s case, the delivery was allegedly made to his residence in Bocaue town.
Alcantara, who allegedly got 3 percent of the project cost, instructed his staff to tell contractors that “if they want more projects, they must give an additional 2 percent to him, as finders’ fee,” Hernandez added.
Hernandez identified seven projects allegedly inserted by Estrada worth a total of P355 million.
They included the construction of flood mitigation structures with pumping stations and floodgates in Barangays Mercado and Iba in Hagonoy worth P60 million each; a P45-million project in Mambog Creek, Malolos; a P50-million project in Calero Creek, Malolos; a P60-million structure in Barangay Meyto, Calumpit; a P40-million project in Santo Rosario Creek, Malolos, and another P40-million project in Barangay Carillo, Hagonoy.
“This is supposedly the allocation of which political personality?” infracomm presiding officer and Bicol Saro party list Rep. Terry Ridon asked Hernandez.
“Sen. Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, your Honor,” the witness replied.
Identical project cost
A check made by the Inquirer found that four of the projects being connected to Estrada were implemented by Ferdstar Builders and that Ang Magbubukid Rep. Ferdinand Beltran signed the contracts as proprietor.
The Santo Rosario and Calero Creek projects were implemented by C.T. Leoncio Construction, while the Barangay Meyto project was implemented by the Discaya-owned Alpha & Omega Gen. Contractor and Development Corp.
As for Villanueva, the being projects linked to him were mostly river flood mitigation structures in Bocaue and Balagtas worth a total of P600 million.
They included a flood control structure project along Balagtas River in Barangay Panginay; four Bocaue River flood mitigation structure projects in barangay Bambang, Turo, Kaingin and Bunlo in Bocaue; and three Balagtas River flood mitigation structure projects in barangay Santol, Dalig and San Juan in Balagtas.
They all had an identical cost of P75 million each.
At least three of the projects were implemented by Wawao Builders, a company marked for permanent blacklisting by both President Marcos and newly appointed Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon for having ghost projects.
Cash stockpile
To support his statements, Hernandez presented to Ridon photos showing stacks of cash which he said were brought by contractors to the Bulacan district office to be given to the “proponents” of the projects.
Another witness from the DPWH, assistant district engineer Jaypee Mendoza, also showed screenshots of purported Viber messages between Alcantara and Villanueva.
The messages were programmed to vanish shortly after being clicked and read, he said, but he managed to take photos of them before they disappeared.
Legal repercussions
In a privilege speech on Tuesday, Estrada “categorically and vehemently denied” Hernandez’s claims and announced plans to sue him.
“I will not allow this brazen attempt to smear my name to go unanswered. This will not pass quietly. Beyond the administrative and criminal liabilities he may face, I will ensure that Mr. Hernandez is held accountable for perjury and made to answer for his deliberate falsehoods,” Estrada said.
“Let us take a lie detector test before the public so that everybody would know who [is] telling the truth,” he said.
Villanueva also took the floor to dismiss Hernandez’s allegations.
“I’ll repeat, Mr. President, I have never been involved in any flood control project. I will not only say that I categorically deny this accusation because I have receipts to show,” he said.
The two senators are no strangers to controversies involving public funds.
Estrada was jailed on corruption charges in 2001 as a coaccused in the plunder case filed against his father, ousted President Joseph Estrada. He was acquitted in 2007.
In 2014, the younger Estrada was again ordered arrested by the Sandiganbayan for plunder and multiple counts of graft in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel scam.
He was later cleared of plunder but convicted of bribery. In August 2024, the antigraft court reversed its decision and acquitted him of bribery as well.
Villanueva, who served as Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (Cibac) party list representative from 2001 to 2010, was also linked to the pork barrel scam.
In November 2016, when he was already a senator, Villanueva was ordered dismissed from public service by then Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales for alleged corruption involving his pork barrel while he was a party list lawmaker.
However, Senate legal counsel Maria Valentina Cruz in the same month said the dismissal order in connection with an offense when he was still a congressman “cannot and should not be implemented,” citing the Ombudsman’s own rules clearly stating that members of Congress are exempted from its administrative authority.
In December 2016, the Senate voted to not implement the dismissal order issued because the Office of the Ombudsman lacks jurisdiction over members of Congress. —WITH REPORTS FROM TINA G. SANTOS, CHARIE ABARCA AND INQUIRER RESEARCH
