Blue Ribbon leads inquiry into flood control mess

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December 30, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — What started as a Senate Blue Ribbon committee (BRC) investigation on the top 15 flood control contractors earlier flagged by President Marcos has turned into a highly publicized trial against massive corruption in the government’s infrastructure projects.

The controversy sparked public furor, triggering the “Trillion Peso March” protests led by religious groups, students and civic society angered by allegations of collusion among Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) engineers, private contractors and politicians to siphon billions of pesos in kickbacks from shoddy or even non-existent flood control and other infrastructure projects.

The Senate panel tasked to investigate and recommend charges for government malfeasance held a series of hearings from August to November, under two different chairmen, the change prompted by the Senate leadership shake-up.

Under then chairman Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, the BRC focused on questionable transactions of the top 15 flood control contractors, such as their bagging of contracts despite being undercapitalized and unqualified, and implementing ghost projects in exchange for a percentage of commissions.

But what really opened the floodgates of corruption was the privilege speech of Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson, who sent his team to inspect substandard or “ghost” flood control projects in Oriental Mindoro and Bulacan, which are flood-prone provinces that received millions in flood control budget but still go under water, no thanks to the shoddy construction of flood mitigation structures.

In no time, Lacson replaced Marcoleta as BRC chair, and shifted the focus of the probe to the involvement of DPWH district engineers Henry Alcantara and Brice Hernandez, contractors Curlee and Sarah Discaya and lawmakers and executive officials who allegedly lined their pockets with flood control kickbacks.

The senators’ grilling forced witnesses to admit their wrongdoing. The Discayas allegedly gave millions in kickbacks to district representatives and DPWH personnel. The DPWH engineers admitted to gambling away their illegal proceeds to launder their dirty money.

SYMS Construction Trading contractor Sally Santos best described the racket when she said she brought boxes for instant noodles but instead packed them with cash. A photo of millions of pesos in cash stacked on a pool table at a DPWH Bulacan district office drew public outrage.

The probe would later open a can of worms within its own backyard. DPWH engineers named Sens. Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva as having endorsed flood control projects. The two denied the allegations and threatened to sue their accusers.

Finger pointing

It was a series of finger-pointing, with all blame pinned on the DPWH bosses – former secretaries Manuel Bonoan and undersecretaries Maria Catalina Cabral and Roberto Bernardo. Cabral and Bonoan initially attended the hearings.

Bernardo ignored the first hearings, until his appearance as Lacson’s VIP witness during the Sept. 25 BRC hearing, when he admitted his role and pinned down the bigwigs in the syndicate.

Bernardo submitted two sworn affidavits where he detailed the deliveries of commissions to senators through their staff.

Bernardo pointed to his superiors, former secretaries Bonoan and now Sen. Mark Villar, for giving the “imprimatur” to tinker with the DPWH spending plan.

But the person he really pinned down was Cabral, whom he alleged to have also received kickbacks in exchange for helping politicians secure funding.

Before Cabral’s apparent suicide in Benguet, the undersecretary was known for allegedly authoring the practice of “allocable,” which Bernardo said refers to setting aside a “budget ceiling” within the National Expenditure Program for favored lawmakers’ proposed projects, often involving commissions.

Allocable looks like a “pork barrel” in the NEP done during the initial stages of the budget planning, unlike the now illegal practice of Congress allocating for its members lump sum funds for their pet projects during the crafting of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

“An allocable is equivalent to pork barrel because it allows items to be funded before they are identified,” Lacson has said. “We’re talking of the NEP, the President’s Budget. Yet, the insertions are already there even before it is transmitted to Congress.”

He described budget insertions both during the NEP and the bicameral conference committee as the seeds of corruption, planted in the NEP and GAB by corrupt executive and legislative officials to reap their illegal proceeds.

The senator called the practice the “original sin.”

“Some people just don’t know when to stop,” he said.

The senators Bernardo implicated have all denied wrongdoing. Former Senate president Francis Escudero called it “a well-orchestrated plan to attack the Senate and its members.”

Former senator now Makati Mayor Nancy Binay said she was “shocked and saddened” at being “dragged” into the mess. Ramon Revilla Jr. shrugged off the claim, even as Bernardo’s most detailed portion in his affidavit concerned the former senator, alleging that he personally delivered to their Cavite mansion boxes containing flood control kickbacks that bankrolled Revilla’s (failed) midterm reelection.

Since the BRC hearings, those who had admitted their role have returned a portion of their illegal proceeds in exchange for their provisional admission as state witnesses.

But the major players who appear most guilty are not spared. Sarah Discaya has been arrested and detained in Lapu-Lapu city to face the corruption case in Cebu. The DPWH engineers and Curlee Discaya remain detained in the Senate for contempt, with Lacson and Senate President Vicente Sotto III saying they have legal basis to keep them under custody until the courts order their arrest.

The floodgates of corruption may have been opened, but the big fish remain free. Charges have been recommended against senators, but the ombudsman has yet to formally file charges. Cabral has committed suicide, raising fears that the evidence in her possession had died with her. Bonoan has not been seen since going abroad.

Lacson appealed to the public not to lose interest and keep up their anger, so as to pressure the government into going after those who enriched themselves with taxpayers’ money.

“I don’t want people’s outrage to die down, because authorities might slacken with their efforts. The government acted on this because of public pressure,” Lacson said.

“No matter how many, how long it takes, we need to get to the bottom of this and find its logical conclusion – put people behind bars.”