Says insertion made in the Senate or bicameral level
SENATE president pro tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson yesterday said his research team has discovered a P355 million insertion for Bulacan in the 2025 national budget.
Lacson, who is the chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, said the amount was not included in the 2025 National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the Department of Budget (DBM) to Congress, and the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) approved by the House of Representatives.
“We found one. There was an insertion that was not found in the House version but was seen after the bicam. So, it is clear that it was inserted in the Senate version (of the budget bill) or during the bicameral conference committee meeting,” Lacson said in Filipino at the “Kapihan sa Senado” media forum.
He said his team has yet to identify the proponent of the budget insertion, saying that there are no “official” records of proposed amendments made at the bicameral level since these are usually just written on “a piece of paper, whether toilet paper, or yellow pad, or stationery.”
He added that they are likewise still checking if the P355 million insertion was earmarked for one line item or several line items.
Lacson said the Blue Ribbon Committee will invite former senator Grace Poe, former chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, and Rep. Zaldy Co, former chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriations, to help identify the proponent of the P355 million augmentation.
He said the panel will extend interparliamentary courtesy to Co when they ask him to appear before the committee.
Lacson said they will also verify with former public works engineer Brice Ericson Hernandez if the P355 million budget insertion was the same amount that he was referring to when he told the House Committee on Infrastructure last Tuesday that Sen. Jinggoy Estrada allegedly collected a 30 percent commission from Bulacan flood control and infrastructure projects worth P355 million this year.
Hernandez has also told the House panel that Sen. Joel Villanueva got a 30 percent commission from flood control projects worth P600 million in 2023.
Both Estrada and Villanueva have denied Hernandez’s allegations.
Lacson vowed there will be no sacred cows in the ongoing investigation of the Blue Ribbon Committee on the flood control mess, even if senators are involved.
“I am not saying that we will reach the point that we will have no quorum. What I am saying is, we must not be blindfolded when we investigate. I think my colleagues understand where I am coming from. Why conduct an investigation if we will be selective? That will be unfair,” he added in Filipino.
Also during the media forum, Lacson said he has secured a CCTV footage showing a representative of WJ Construction visiting the Senate last August 19. He named the representative as a certain “Mina.”
“As we speak, we have a copy of a CCTV footage showing a representative of WJ visiting the Senate. Her name is Mina. We will invite her to the next hearing,” he said, also in Filipino.
The senator said “we already have an idea where she went, whose office she went,” but said they will confirm these with her when she testifies next week.
Lacson said they will ask Mina if she talked with a staff member of the Blue Ribbon Committee or of a senator.
“Our colleagues should also explain why WJ went there [if Mina went to a legislator’s office]),” he said.
He said Mina’s visit to the Senate may be “circumstantial,” as how lawyers would say it, noting that the construction firm was mentioned by Hernandez during his appearance at the House hearing.
He said the committee will likewise invite the CCTV operator to attend next week’s hearing and put on record where Mina went as seen in the video footage.
“It would be better if the CCTV operator will testify and point which office Mina visited. Because if we present the CCTV footage alone, the video cannot speak,” he added.
Lacson refused to give more details about the content of the footage.
WITNESS PROTECTION
Hernandez yesterday asked the Pasay City Regional Trial Court to act on his request to be referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to become a government witness in the flood control projects anomaly that has rocked the nation.
Hernandez’ plea was contained in a petition for amparo his lawyer had submitted to Branch 112 of the Pasay City RTC Thursday.
A writ of amparo (a Spanish word that means protection) is a special writ to protect or enforce a constitutional right other than physical liberty.
In the same petition, Hernandez asked the court to order his immediate transfer to the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame from the Pasay City Jail due to alleged serious and ongoing threats to his safety.
The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) spokesperson Jayrex Bustinera said Hernandez was brought to the city jail on Wednesday night by personnel from the Senate’s Office of the Sergeant at Arms and the PNP.
Hernandez has been ordered detained after he was cited in contempt for allegedly lying during the Blue Ribbon Committee hearing last Monday.
Hernandez’ lawyer Ernest Levanza told reporters the former DPWH executive has allegedly been receiving threats even prior to his attendance at the House hearing, adding that these grew worse allegedly after the sacked engineer implicated Estrada and Villanueva to the anomaly.
“The PNP Custodial Center is actually a better option. We do not even understand why it has to be here in the city jail,” Levanza said.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said he has asked the BJMP to “restrict” Hernandez’s visitors to members of his family and his legal counsels.
Sotto said this is meant to prevent “other people” from possibly pressuring Hernandez from changing the statements he made before the House joint panel.
He likewise said that contrary to the statements made by members of the Senate minority bloc, the Senate continues to have jurisdiction over Hernandez.
Minority senators have also claimed that Sotto’s order transfer Hernandez’s place of detention from the Senate to the PNP Custodial Center was done without consulting other senators.
Sotto said the easiest way out of detention for Hernandez is for him to tell the truth so the contempt order can be lifted.
Sotto said he agreed to the request of House Speaker Martin Romualdez to transfer Hernandez’s place of detention because of his allegations against Estrada and Villanueva, and because the Lacson panel would request the House infracomm to allow Jaypee Mendoza, also a DPWH project engineer, to attend next week’s hearing.
Mendoza is currently under House custody after he sought its protection after he also implicated Villanueva in the floor control mess.
Lacson said he will ask Sotto that Hernandez be returned to the Senate.
Rep. Tery Ridon (PL, Bicol Saro), lead chair the House Infrastructure Committee, said the joint panel is concerned over the Senate’s decision to transfer Hernandez to the the Pasay City Jail, citing threats to his life.
“We want to express strong concerns over the Senate’s decision to bring Brice Hernandez from the PNP Custodial Center to the Pasay City Jail. We saw the weight of his testimonies about what happened in Bulacan,” he said on Wednesday night.
Ridon said Hernandez will be protected better at the PNP Custodial Center, stressing that he is not an accused yet and remains a resource person of the House joint panel even if he was earlier cited in contempt by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
“So our call for the entire Senate to rethink and reconsider its decision because I think there will be a threat to the life of Brice Hernandez if he is moved from the PNP Custodial Center to the Pasay City Jail,” he said in Filipino.
Meanwhile, Sotto said Divina Gracia “Beng” Ramos, the staff member of the Blue Ribbon oversight management office, who allegedly accepted kickbacks on behalf of Estrada has been placed on “floating” pending the conclusion of the investigation being conducted by the Senate Secretariat on her involvement in the scandal.
Lacson said Ramos has been removed from his committee, but declined to say more, except that Ramos is undergoing medical treatment.
RIDON-HERNANDEZ TIES
Estrada, in a Facebook post, suggested a supposed link between Ridon and Hernandez, noting that they both attended grade school in a school in Quezon City.
“Safe pa ba tayo sa kanila? (Are we still safe from them?), he said in the caption of his post, which included yearbook photos of Ridon and Hernandez.
He did not elaborate.
Estrada’s post drew several reactions from netizens, with some saying that it is easy for him to point to the connection between Ridon and Hernandez to divert public attention.
Cecilie Jose Ontiveros, a retired teacher from the school, said Ridon and Hernandez “were not classmates, only batchmates. In fact, they may not have even been familiar with each other.”
Ontiveros said Ridon belonged to the grade school “cream section” and served as a grade school pupil government leader, who transferred to another school after finishing elementary.
Hernandez, on the other hand, was from another section. She described the engineer as “quiet and not particularly active in school activities.” She said Hernandez also transferred to another school after elementary.
BONOAN
Lacson said former DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan will not yet be invited by the committee to attend the next hearing since his supposed involvement in anomalous flood control projects has not yet been established.
Lacson said what he disclosed during his privilege speech last Tuesday was Bonoan’s daughter’s connection to a construction firm owned by Candaba, Pampanga Mayor Rene Maglanque which was awarded billions of pesos worth of flood control projects in Bulacan.
In his privilege speech last Tuesday, Lacson said MBB Global Properties Corporation, owned by the Maglanque family of Pampanga, also owns Globalcrete Builders which was awarded some P2.195 billion worth of flood control projects in Bulacan from 2018 to 2024.
Bonoan’s daughter, Fatima Bonoan dela Cruz, is listed as MBB’s treasurer; while Macy Monique Maglanque is the firm’s president and Sunshine Bernardo its corporate secretary.
Macy Maglanque is the daughter of Mayor Maglanque, while Bernardo is the daughter of former DPWH undersecretary Robert Bernardo, who has been named as among those who allegedly also got kickbacks from government contracts. – With Ashzel Hachero, Victor Reyes and Wendell Vigilia
