SENATE President pro tempore Panfilo Lacson yesterday said he will provide Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon “damning evidence” so he can ask the Anti-Money Laundering Council to freeze the assets of the so-called “BGC Boys,” or the Bulacan Group of Contractors.
“We are getting there. My office will furnish DPWH Sec Vince Dizon will all the damning evidence in our possession so he can take action in this regard,” Lacson said in an interview with radio dzMM.
He said the assets cannot be frozen without a complaint, and Dizon can initiate the filing of criminal and administrative cases against the BGC Boys and the contractors.
Meanwhile, Dizon asked the Department of Justice to issue an immigration lookout bulletin order (ILBO) against his predecessor, Manuel Bonoan.
Dizon made the request after Lacson on Tuesday linked Bonoan’s name to a contractor in Bulacan in congressional inquiries on anomalies in flood control projects.
Aside from Bonoan, Dizon also requested ILBOs for Rene Maglanque, mayor of Candaba town in Pampanga Mayor, and officers of the MBB Global Properties Corporation — Macy Monique Maglanque, president; Sunshine Bernardo, corporate secretary; and Fatima Gay Bonoan Dela Cruz, treasurer.
“An investigation is being conducted on DPWH officials and key officers of construction companies allegedly involved in ghost projects and or substandard construction of flood control projects. The timely issuance of an ILBO is of utmost necessity to enable the current investigations to proceed without delay and to hold those liable accountable to the Filipino people,” Dizon said in his request.
Aside from the ILBO, Dizon also requested that the Bureau of Immigration inform the DPWH and other law enforcement agencies of any impending travel of all those named in the ILBO request.
Lacson, in a privilege speech on Tuesday, said Bonoan’s daughter and the daughters of Mayor Maglanque and former Public Works undersecretary Roberto Bernardo are in business in the MBB Global Properties.
An ILBO has also been requested for Bernardo.
On the BGC Boys, Lacson in the privilege speech “The Flooded Gates of Hell Part 2,” Lacson detailed the alleged casino escapades of the group composed of Herny Alcantara, former district engineer of the Bulacan 1st Engineering District; Brice Ericson Hernandez, former assistant district engineer of the same engineering district; Jaypee Mendoza, project engineer; Arjay Domasig, and Engineer 2; and Edrick San Diego, a contractor.
Lacson said the BGC Boys used to bring millions of pesos to the casinos, apparently from kickbacks from anomalous flood control projects in Bulacan, and exchange them for chips, then convert them back to cash, in the process laundering their loot.
LUXURY VEHICLES
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, in a privilege speech yesterday, said Hernandez has a long list of luxury vehicles in “his garage,” aside from those he admitted owning during a hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee this week.
Hernandez has said the owns a Dodge Challenger, a Toyota Supra, and a Lamborghini Usur Performante.
Estrada said based on information reaching him, Hernandez has eight more high-end vehicles and eight expensive motorcycles, while his wife owns a number of expensive cars including a Vespa Primavera, and a BMW M1000RR.
Estrada said Hernandez claims that the vehicles are part of a buy-and-sell business run by his sibling. “But why are all these vehicles registered under his name?” he said.
He said Hernandez’ salary in the DPWH would not be enough to acquire these high-end vehicles.
PUNISHMENT
Sen. Francis Pangilinan is pushing for government to claim multi-millions worth of warranties, penalties, and surety bonds from contractors of failed flood control projects.
He said this is one way of immediately punishing contractors involved in anomalous flood control projects. He said penalties can be up to 30 percent of the total cost of a project that will be proven substandard within a year after completion.
“Based on what we have found so far, isn’t it that the government should have acted to enforce these warranties on the many projects which were uncovered to be substandard or ghost projects?” Pangilinan said in Filipino on Tuesday during his interpellation.
He said the penalties and warranties are a form of “remedies” that the government can use to run after erring contractors.
He asked Dizon to enforce the claims, adding that “monetary punishment” is faster than exacting accountability in filing criminal cases against the contractors.
“The government can immediately recover and at the same time this will somehow hurt these contractors before cases are filed against them because there are penalties that can be recovered,” he said.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano asked Lacson, being the new chairperson of the Blue Ribbon Committee, to consider releasing partial committee reports instead of waiting for the full investigation to be completed.
He said a delayed report could allow those involved to avoid accountability by dragging names into the mess.
Lacson agreed to the release of partial committee reports.
Cayetano said a main player in anomalies, naming names, will result in confusion, which he said can be a tactic to blur accountability.
“If you cannot convince them, confuse them. It looks like this will be the strategy. And I’ve heard this before, that if you reveal more information, I will spill all the beans on you. That’s the problem which we will have to face when that happens because we won’t know who’s telling the truth or not,” he said in mixed Filipino and English.
