Senate cites ex-DPWH district exec in contempt
Former Bulacan assistant district engineer Brice Ericson Hernandez of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was cited for contempt and ordered detained for allegedly lying before the Senate blue ribbon committee, which is investigating anomalous flood control projects.
During a hearing on Monday, Hernandez repeatedly denied owning a fake driver’s license under the name of “Marvin Santos de Guzman,” which he supposedly uses whenever he goes to a casino to gamble.
Under the law, government officials and employees are banned from gambling in any casino in the country.
“I don’t have an ID like that; my boss just brings me with him when we go there,” Hernandez told senators.
Committee head Sen. Rodante Marcoleta further pressed the former DPWH official, saying he holds a certification from Okada, that Hernandez’s registered name with the luxury hotel and casino in Parañaque City is Marvin Santos de Guzman.
But Hernandez did not budge. “I have never owned a license like that. What I remember is I went to Okada for a convention,” he said.
Very obvious lie
With this, Sen. Erwin Tulfo made the motion to cite him for contempt, noting that it was “very obvious” that Hernandez was lying.
Tulfo’s motion was later seconded by Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada.
“There is a motion to cite Brice Hernandez a.k.a. Marvin Santos de Guzman in contempt [and it was] seconded by Sen. Jinggoy. Any objection? Hearing none, the motion is approved. The committee cites Hernandez a.k.a. Marvin Santos de Guzman in contempt,” Marcoleta said.
Hernandez and his boss, Bulacan First District Engineering Office head Henry Alcantara, along with other officials, were dismissed from the DPWH after an internal investigation discovered that of the 15 “nonexistent” or “missing” flood control projects found so far, most were under the jurisdiction of their district engineering office, while the rest were in other regions.
In the same hearing, contractor Pacifico “Curlee” Discaya II told the committee that no senator had asked him for money in exchange for government project bids.
Jinggoy irked
His answer, however, caused some tension between Marcoleta and Estrada, who took offense at a joke cracked by the Senate blue ribbon chair.
Estrada had posed the question to Discaya after the latter revealed that some House lawmakers had solicited money from him in exchange for bagging government contracts.
“Mr. Discaya, with all the names of the lawmakers you mentioned, I only have one question, was there a senator involved?” Estrada asked.
“Your Honor, there is none,” Discaya said.
“You are safe,” Marcoleta told Estrada, who was visibly irked and replied, “I resent that statement.”
“You know it’s just a joke,” Marcoleta said quickly. Despite this, Estrada moved to strike Marcoleta’s remark off the Senate records.
Discaya said they were compelled to give in to the requests of lawmakers to win government contracts.
Discaya and his wife, Cezarah “Sarah,” are under investigation after admitting to owning or controlling nine construction companies that have cornered more than P30 billion in government flood control contracts over a three-year period.
Tiangco tags Co
Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco, who was also at the hearing, flagged anew the P13.8 billion insertion allegedly made by then House appropriations committee head Rep. Elizaldy Co in the 2025 national budget, saying that all of the insertions made were linked to flood control projects.
Tiangco presented the contents of a flash drive, which he said he was not allowed to show when the House held its hearing on the supposed anomalies in government projects on Sept. 2.
Marcoleta particularly asked Tiangco if his investigation showed that Co was the sole proponent of the P13.8 billion insertions.
“I asked some congressmen and they said, ‘These projects are not mine, we did not request these.’ I did not ask them if these were ‘parking’ [parked] or ‘sagasa’ [rammed]. What I’m saying is this is what I saw. Normally, if this is my request, I would also be the proponent and the congressional district representative. Otherwise, you would wonder why,” Tiangco replied.
Prior to this, he bared the existence of so-called “parking” and “sagasa” funds, explaining that parking means a representative has temporarily inserted funds for a project in the allocation for another congressional district while “sagasa” means that whether a district likes it or not, the funds for a project has been added to its budget, resulting in bloated allocations.
