When denials amount to nothing

Can the Filipino public accept blanket denials after months of waiting for those implicated in the corruption scandal to come clean about their involvement?

Expecting them to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” may be wishful thinking after former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan, former Department of Education Undersecretary Trygve Olaivar, and businessman Maynard Ngu denied any links to budget insertions for corruption-plagued flood control projects.

An exasperated Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian cut through Bonoan’s blanket denial in the latter’s vain attempt to defend himself from accusations that, during his tenure, flood control and other infrastructure projects could have yielded him as much as P2.25 billion in kickbacks.

At the resumption of the Senate blue ribbon committee (BRC) hearing into the raging flood control scandal on Monday, Gatchalian confronted Bonoan, who served as DPWH secretary from 2022 to 2025, by asking him if he had read the scathing affidavit of his former subordinate, former DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo.

“No, I have not,” quipped Bonoan, whose soft-spoken voice—and unassuming demeanor—eerily contrasted with the magnitude of his alleged involvement in anomalous infrastructure projects undertaken by the DPWH under his watch. Bonoan is the corespondent of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, former Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla, and former Ako Bicol party list Rep. Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co in the plunder complaint related to the flood control corruption scandal pending at the Department of Justice.

Bonoan’s denial did not sit well with Gatchalian, who had been sitting in all BRC hearings since last year. The senator from Valenzuela often asked the most sensible questions, backed up by complete staff work, and even managed to voice public sentiment—and seething anger—over how officials in the highest echelons of power made off with hard-earned taxpayer money with impunity.

The senator then read aloud the contents of the affidavit that Bernardo read before the BRC members on Nov. 14, 2025, which the public is now very familiar with. “You haven’t read this, but this was furnished to us during one of the hearings of the blue ribbon, and you were implicated here many, many times,” Gatchalian told Bonoan, incredulous about Bonoan’s apparent recourse to feigning ignorance.

“Commitments.” Refreshing Bonoan’s selective memory, Gatchalian read salient portions of Bernardo’s affidavit: “On page 20, the value of the projects that [were] handled for Secretary Manny Bonoan was at least P5 billion per annum for the years 2023, 2024, 2025, with a 15 percent average commitment. Of this 15 percent average commitment, Secretary Manny Bonoan, 75 percent, usually [he] would give me 25 percent of the commitment, with the rest of the commitment shared between him and [former DPWH Undersecretary] Cathy Cabral.”

Even with these serious allegations, what Bonoan could only muster was—as expected—general denial: “I think I issued a denial on this at one point in time when I learned about [this]. I have not read the entire affidavit, but I issued a denial to it. I don’t even recall actually talking about any projects at all. There will be proposals from them…”

Gatchalian then cut him short, noting that what was clear was that the DPWH secretary had allocated an amount in the DPWH budget that he could funnel to the list of projects prepared by Bernardo upon his instruction.

By using blanket denials, Bonoan was attempting to avoid a detailed discussion of the damning affidavit detailing the exact amounts of projects and kickbacks for alleged delivery to Bonoan through Bernardo. “And they [Bernardo and Alcantara] have been submitting [a list of] projects to you, and you were given kickbacks—10 percent, 15 percent, and if we sum them all up, it will reach P2.2 billion,” the senator noted, to which Bonoan retorted: “I completely deny. I don’t have any allocable amount.”

Gatchalian then said, point-blank: “Whether allocable [or] nonallocable, you got kickback[s]. And the fact is … We’re here in this hearing because, for the last [three] years, you’ve let this happen under your watch. You’re the secretary of the DPWH.”

The senator was clearly zeroing in on Bonoan’s principal role in the flood control scandal, as the head of the agency cannot be ignorant of widespread anomalies in his department. It doesn’t help that persistent rumors of kickbacks from substandard and/or ghost projects related to most DPWH projects have been going around for as long as we can remember.

When Bonoan asserted that he had only “general oversight” of the department, a frustrated Gatchalian shot back, “Pero kung kasali ho kayo, ‘yang oversight na ‘yan, walang kwenta ho ‘yan (But if you’re part of the scheme, that oversight is useless).” The senator blamed the flood control scandal on Bonoan’s “bad leadership” (masamang liderato). “Why did you let this happen (Bakit niyo po pinabayaan)?”

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