SENATE President pro tempore Panfilo Lacson yesterday urged the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to file criminal charges against lawmakers, department officials, and contractors who plundered government coffers by way of anomalous government projects.
In a privilege speech titled “The Flooded Gates of Hell Part 2,” Lacson also disclosed the existence of the “BGC Boys” composed of DPWH engineers and a contractor, who he said are laundering money through casinos.
Lacson said all those involved in the anomalous flood control projects must be made criminally accountable for multiple violations of malversation through falsification of public documents; violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act; violation of the Anti-Plunder Law as they embezzled billions of pesos from government funds; use of fictitious names and concealing their identities in the case of Bulacan engineers; and violation of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
He said the involved individuals must also face administrative cases for grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, gross neglect of duty, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service, violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and violation of the Code of Conduct pertaining to the practice of their profession as regulated by the Professional Regulations Commission.
“Today we turned our sight to a darker place — the flooded gates of hell. There, we can find those who rob the Filipino people drowning not in flood waters but in sins of moral decay. I hope they will drown with their sins soonest due to the many cases they will face,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English.
He said the DPWH’s Bulacan engineers, who he called “BGC Boys” or Bulacan Group of Contractors, frequented casinos to launder their loot.
The BGC Boys refer to Henry Alcantara, former DWPH district engineer of the Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office; Brice Ericson Hernandez, former assistant district engineer of the same provincial district; Jaypee Mendoza, a project engineer; Arjay Domasig, Engineer 2; and Edrick San Diego, a contractor.
Lacson said records from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation showed the five men incurred a combined P950 million in gross losses.
In an apparent bid to convert their loot to cash, Lacson said, the BGC Boys would bring money to the casinos, convert them to chips, then exchange them for cash, with Alcantara reaching P1.4 billion in cash-to-chips transactions, and P997.7 million in chips-to-cash transactions from 2023 to 2025.
He said he has brought the matter to the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
Lacson also said that around 30 ghost flood projects were undertaken by the BGC Boys in connivance with contractors by declaring double and similar projects but the actual construction work involves only one. He added that 28 of the flood control projects have distinct amounts of P77 million each.
These projects are within the area of the Bulacan 1st Engineering District, including Bulakan, Calumpit, and Malolos. Among the contractors are Wawao Builders and SYMS Construction.
Lacson also said a daughter of recently resigned Public Workers Secretary Manuel Bonoan is connected to a contractor who was awarded some P2.195 billion worth of flood control projects in Bulacan from 2018 to 2024.
He said the MBB Global Properties Corporation, which owns the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Clark in Pampanga, is owned by Candaba, Pampanga Mayor Rene Maglanque, but its general information sheet listed Macy Monique Maglanque as its president, Sunshine Bernardo as corporate secretary, and Fatima Gay Bonoan dela Cruz as treasurer.
He said the women are children of Maglanque, former Public Works undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, and Bonoan, thus the company is named MBB (Maglanque, Bernardo, and Bonoan) Global Properties Corp.
Lacson said it was the obvious reason former DPWH chief Bonoan used to say that the ghost flood control projects in Bulacan discovered by the President were “isolated cases.”
“You connect the dots … This was maybe the reason the former DPWH Secretary Bonoan said the ghost project discovered by the President in Bulacan was an isolated case. Maybe he does not want Globalcrete Builders to be unearthed and investigated,” he said in Filipino.
Lacson said Globalcrete is owned by Mayor Maglanque who was awarded P2.195 billion worth of flood control projects from 2018 to 2024.
