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Daphne Galvez - The Philippine Star
April 24, 2026 | 12:00am
Former Senator Bong Revilla left the Department of Justice after the preliminary investigation of his plunder case on February 12, 2026.
Philstar.com / Ian Laqui
MANILA, Philippines — A long-time aide of former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary Roberto Bernardo detailed before the Sandiganbayan yesterday how he delivered boxes and suitcases to personalities linked to anomalous flood control projects.
Vergel Niño Garcia said during the bail hearing on the malversation case against former senator Ramon Revilla Jr. and other officials of the DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering office that Bernardo had instructed him to deliver 12 sealed boxes to Revilla’s family compound, known as the White House Compound, in Cavite in February 2025.
Garcia said he saw Revilla at the compound during the delivery, but that he did not see the senator receiving any of the boxes.
He claimed that he did not know then that the boxes contained money and that he only learned that the boxes and luggage he delivered contained cash after the flood control scandal surfaced.
His testimony is a corroboration of Bernardo’s claim during a Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing last year that P250 million was delivered to Revilla in February 2025, shortly before the 2025 election campaign.
Aside from Revilla, Garcia said he also delivered to other personalities, including Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, former education undersecretary Trygve Olaivar, deceased DPWH undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral and former DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan.
Deliveries were also allegedly made to a former Senate aide of Makati Mayor Nancy Binay, Carleen Yap-Villa, in a residence in Horseshoe Village in Quezon City. Yap-Villa was the former aide of Binay who has been appointed as officer-in-charge of Makati City’s General Services Department and vice chairperson of the bids and awards committee.
Garcia told the court that Bernardo instructed him to deliver 12 boxes to Estrada at the Artiaga Building in San Juan in November 2024. Although he saw Estrada in the building during the delivery, it was a personnel who received the boxes from him.
For Olaivar, Garcia said he made three deliveries at three different locations: three suitcases in the basement parking in Rockwell in Makati in 2023 and four suitcases behind a gas station in Magallanes as well as 15 boxes at the Delta gate along Airport Road in 2024.
Olaivar allegedly received the suitcases and boxes personally.
For Cabral, Garcia said two deliveries were made in 2023: once at her residence in Tatalon Quezon City where he gave one sealed paper bag, and another at a parking lot near the Quirino Grandstand in Manila where he gave her one box.
He added that Cabral accompanied her driver who received it each time.
As for Bonoan, Garcia said there were three deliveries: two at Diamond Hotel in Manila and one in a restaurant on Tomas Morato, Quezon City.
The first delivery was allegedly in November 2024 with 15 boxes. The second and third deliveries, with 20 boxes each time, were made in March and June of 2025. In all three, it was Bonoan’s driver named Jonie who received the deliveries.
Garcia said he has been serving as Bernardo’s personal aide for 20 years, and that he was hired because Bernardo and his father were close friends.
The prosecution also presented Bernardo’s driver, Francisco dela Fuente, who claimed he delivered boxes to the White House compound in 2024 and in March 2025.
Revilla was allegedly present in 2024, but his three aides were the only ones who picked up the boxes in 2025.
Bernardo said in his Senate testimony that he delivered P125 million to the residence of Revilla in 2024.
Although Bernardo was supposed to testify before the Sandiganbayan yesterday, he was excused as he was undergoing treatment at a hospital for chronic rhinosinusitis, follicular pharyngitis and acute bronchitis. Doctors reportedly advised him to get five days of bed rest.
