A FORMER undersecretary and three former engineers of the Department of Public Works and Highways yesterday appeared before the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) that is investigating irregularities in flood control projects of the department.
One of the four, former assistant engineer Jaypee Mendoza, surrendered to the ICI a Lamborghini, one of the luxury vehicles he supposedly obtained while he was with DPWH. He surrendered a luxury sports utility vehicle last week.
Aside from Mendoza, the three others who faced the ICI were former undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral, dismissed DPWH Bulacan first district engineer Henry Alcantara, and former assistant engineer Brice Hernandez.
They were aided by security personnel from the Senate and did not issue any statement.
Meanwhile, Malacañang announced the appointment of Brian Keith Hosaka, a lawyer and former commissioner of the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG), as ICI executive director.
Communications Secretary Dave Gomez said Hosaka’s appointment paper was signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. yesterday.
Hosaka has served as assistant court administrator of the Supreme Court, and chief of the Public Information Office (PIO) of the High Court when Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin was chief justice. He also served as PIO chief and spokesperson under Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo until his appointment to GCG in 2023.
The ICI is chaired by retired Supreme Court associate justice Andres Reyes Jr.. Its members are former DPWH head Rogelio Singson and SGV & Co. executive Rossana Fajardo. Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong is ICI special adviser and investigator.
The four former DPWH officials gave their testimonies to the ICI but no detail about the hearing was disclosed.
Alcantara, Hernandez and Mendoza have implicated several lawmakers in alleged budget insertions and kickbacks from flood control projects under the DPWH
Cabral allegedly called a staff member of now Senate President Vicente Sotto III shortly after the May 2025 elections to ask if they want to insert anything in the proposed 2026 national budget.
After the ICI hearing, Hernandez and Mendoza were taken to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Alcantara, Henandez and Mendoza have been included in the DOJ’s Witness Protection Program along with contractors couple Pacifico “Curlee” and Cezarah “Sarah” Discaya in connection with the investigations into anomalies in flood control projects.
Sen. Francis Escudero said he appeared before the ICI as he was invited to brief the commission on the budget process.
As far he knows, he said, there were individual amendments proposed by lawmakers on the floor which he said are legal.
He said he does not have any knowledge about the ”small committee” that inserts projects in the budget.
On Tuesday, the ICI invited former senator Grace Poe as a resource person about the budget process in Congress.
Poe chaired the Senate finance committee in the 19th Congress and was supposedly a member of a “small bicameral conference committee” that deliberated on the controversial 2025 national budget where alleged insertions, especially in the DPWH budget, had been made.
Poe denied she is a part of the small committee that reportedly included Escudero and Representatives Martin Romualdez and Elizaldy Co.
“Actually, I was sent an invitation to be a resource person to shed light on the process of the budget … I’m actually glad to be given the opportunity to be able to explain the process as I know,” Poe said.
LUXURY VEHICLES
Magalong said in an interview that Hernandez was set to surrender a hybrid Ferrari which the commission might pick up instead but did not say when.
He also said Hernandez is surrendering several luxury motorcycles. He did not say how many or when.
Magalong said the vehicles would be temporarily placed in under ICI custody and disposed “in accordance with the law.” There have been talks about an auction.
Meanwhile, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro defended the ICI, saying it “cannot get evidence out of thin air.”
Sen. Rodante Marcoleta has questioned the independence of the Commission for supposedly relying on government for evidence such as the documents and reports from agencies.
Castro said ICI as an independent commission will investigate thoroughly and examine all evidence it had gathered including information and documents that it may have sourced from the government agencies and even the ongoing congressional inquiries.
“Where will they get the information? From everything they can get. You just cannot get evidence out of thin air. It will also come from documents from the government, that’s not all the ICI will look at. Every angle they can get to complete the evidence, they will take it,” she said in Filipino.
HOUSE PROBE
The House Infrastructure Committee suspended its hearings indefinitely “to give way to the full and impartial proceedings” of the ICI, said Rep. Terry Ridon (PL, Bicol Saro), lead chair of the joint panel.
Ridon said that in the next few days, the Infra Comm will turn over all transcripts, documents and other pieces of information and evidence to the ICI “and it is our commitment to fully cooperate with the ICI on any and every aspect of our previous proceedings.”
He said the Infra Comm, which has so far only held two hearings on the flood control fund scandal, “has full faith in the mandate, integrity and competence of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure.”
The joint panel’s decision was reached after Speaker Faustino Dy III said he would prefer that the ICI handle the investigation because the public does not believe that the Infra Comm’s investigation is credible.
It was during the second hearing of the Infra Comm last September 9 that Brice Hernandez revealed that Senators Joel Villanueva and Jinggoy Estrada were involved in the flood control fund scandal, saying they received 30 percent from the total amounts of their projects in Bulacan. – With Wendell Vigilia
