Heist leaders or fall guys?

Were they smart and cunning enough to game the system, or were they clueless patsies thrown to the wolves as fall guys?

Virtual unknowns until Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson linked them to the flood control scandal, resigned Department of Education Undersecretary Trygve Olaivar and Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Undersecretary Adrian Carlos Bersamin gained sudden notoriety for allegedly engineering and carting off P25 billion in kickbacks from budget insertions reportedly ordered by President Marcos.

Quoting Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, Lacson detailed how the two allegedly used the President’s name to facilitate the insertions, from which they later drew kickbacks. Bernardo’s claims belied the series of video clip exposes posted by resigned Ako Bicol party list Rep. Zaldy Co, that implicated the President to the P100-billion insertions in the 2025 budget. Co quoted Olaivar and Bersamin as saying that the President wanted a 25 percent cut from the insertions some of which, Co said, he delivered to Malacañang and to the house of the President’s cousin, former Speaker Martin Romualdez.

In Bernardo’s private testimony to Lacson, the deliveries reportedly involved armored vans loaded with between P800 million and P2 billion each time, with the exchange between the two underlings done at the basement parking of a five-star hotel in Manila.

Shady deal

Could it be that Co had been played by Olaivar and the grand nephew of former Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin? After all, “who would not believe a Bersamin?” Lacson noted.

Co’s online exposé, which banked mainly on the say-so of the two young officials instead of being said under oath, were dismissed as “pure hearsay” by Malacañang. Olaivar and the younger Bersamin have since resigned in the wake of Lacson’s statements.

But the fallout from Bernardo’s confession unexpectedly hit the older Bersamin as well, Citing the DPWH official’s revelation, Lacson said the former executive secretary had volunteered to “take care” of facilitating the release of the P52-billion insertion which, Bernardo said, he himself handled.

While Lacson has cleared Mr. Marcos of involvement in the shady deal, saying it would be illogical for the President to eventually veto funding items that he had supposedly sought to be inserted, it is alarming that Olaivar and Bersamin had managed a multibillion peso scam right under the nose of the President. Such optics reflect badly on the top executive’s leadership style and control over his people.

Daring heist

Was there no oversight in the release of public funds such that underlings can just appropriate billions of pesos in kickback for themselves with impunity? How could two relatively young bureaucrats stage such a daring heist, and almost got away with it? Olaivar and Bersamin practically ran circles around their superiors, with the public none the wiser had Bernardo not snitched on them.

The involvement of the two junior officials are a telling reason why being in government is a coveted post: being so close to power could mean enjoying the crumbs—still sizable and lucrative, by the way—that fall from the festive table groaning with multibillion peso worth of government projects. It would take a sterling character and unassailable integrity to resist such accessible perks that come with proximity to power.

The revelation that the two deputies would switch armored vans to drive off with the loot from the basement of a decent hotel also raises questions on the hotel’s lax security protocols. Would more stringent security measures have flagged the anomalous transactions? But then again, as Lacson had previously asked, who would dare challenge a Bersamin?

Reputation in public service

What’s even more incredible, if Bernardo’s confession were to be believed, was how a former Supreme Court justice and trusted lieutenant of the President could sully his name and discard years building up a reputation in public service by allegedly being complicit in the fund diversion.

Letting go of the Bersamins and Olaivar is so easy, which begs the question of who are afraid of them. Why are the appropriate agencies not even trying to get ahold of them? They should be summoned before the Senate’s blue ribbon committee, the Ombudsman, and the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, and encouraged to reveal the machinations they’ve apparently mastered to run loops around government systems if only to plug vulnerable cracks that allowed them. More importantly, they must be held accountable for their deeds.

With errant contractors and DPWH officials now facing trial and possible jail terms for looting the country’s resources, the other actors behind the scene in similar illicit transactions should be prosecuted as well. An arrest warrant posthaste should precipitate a hold departure order to prevent them from leaving the country and escaping accountability. Government service is a public trust after all, and woe to those who would betray it.