MANILA, Philippines — Former senator Ramon Revilla Jr. leads the latest list of persons recommended for prosecution by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure.
The ICI referral to the Office of the Ombudsman also includes a request to further investigate Senators Francis Escudero and Mark Villar and former senators Grace Poe and Nancy Binay.
Revilla and nine Senate staffers, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) engineers and other figures are facing charges of plunder, direct or indirect bribery, corruption of public officials and administrative sanctions, among others.
Senate staffers recommended for prosecution are Maynard Ngu, a former special envoy to China who served as alleged “bagman” to Escudero; Carleen Yap-Villa, Binay’s former aide now officer in charge of Makati’s General Services Department, and J.Y. dela Rosa, a former staffer for Poe who requested a list of projects on her behalf.
DPWH engineers facing a possible complaint are Gerard Opulencia, regional director of DPWH in Metro Manila; Manny Bulusan, head of South Manila District Engineering Office; Ruel Umali, chief of Las Piñas-Muntinlupa District Engineering Office, and Gene Ryan Altea, assistant regional director of DPWH Region IV-B, who is facing an arrest warrant and is still at large.
Other personalities include a certain Mrs. Patron, a Batangas contractor who allegedly collected a 20 percent commitment for Poe, and Carlo Aguilar, a former Las Piñas councilor and cousin of Villar, who asked for 50 percent commissions on projects on behalf of the senator.
If realized, Revilla, who lost his reelection bid this year, will face yet another plunder charge in his three decades as a public official. He was acquitted of plunder in 2018 over the Priority Assistance Development Fund scam.
Most of the other personalities turned up for the first time in a supplemental affidavit by former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, which he read out at the Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing on Nov. 14.
Meanwhile, the ICI recommended that Binay, Escudero, Poe and Villar be investigated further due to the “gravity of allegations” which the commission did not specify.
Bernardo gave a litany of allegations against the senators, who allegedly received “commitments” from infrastructure projects.
Binay, according to the DPWH undersecretary, allegedly requested a list of projects for 2023 and 2024 totaling P3.55 billion, with a 15 percent commitment, after someone made a competing offer to release the funds quicker.
Escudero, the former Senate president who lost his position due to the scandal, received a 20 percent commitment on projects, amounting to P1.4 billion.
Poe, the former Senate finance committee chair, has P500 million in projects reserved for her, according to information from resigned DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan.
Villar, the DPWH chief throughout much of the Duterte administration, supposedly received commitments during his tenure.
ICI chairman Andres Reyes Jr. said a mere request for further investigation does not dilute the gravity of the accusations leveled against them.
“We are not washing our hands from these cases,” he said yesterday. “We are just joining hands with the ombudsman.”
“In the meantime that they are investigating, we are also investigating. So, two heads are better than one,” he added.
The ICI will submit more evidence to the ombudsman for possible case buildup against Bonoan, Bernardo, fugitive lawmaker Zaldy Co, former DPWH undersecretary Catalina Cabral, dismissed Bulacan engineers Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez and Jaypee Mendoza and former audit commissioner Mario Lipana.
‘Denied due process’
Meanwhile, Revilla’s camp claimed he was denied due process. “We need to clarify that our client, former senator Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla has not received any subpoena or a copy of any complaint against him,” said his spokesperson Maria Carissa Guinto.
“From the beginning, our client made himself fully available to the ICI and openly welcomed their inquiry. Yet he was never invited to speak, never given the opportunity to defend himself and never allowed to present the truth. He is deeply disappointed to have been denied such a fundamental right, though he still holds trust and faith in the system,” she said.
“Mr. Revilla remains confident that truth, rather than conjecture, will prevail, especially that the allegations against him are based on the meaningless accusations fabricated by a criminal mastermind and his cohorts who are desperately buying their way to freedom,” she added.
“The assertions of those whose conduct reflect a deliberate pattern of moral bankruptcy are suspect at best and should not, in any manner, be construed as drawing our client into the web they themselves engineered,” she pointed out.
Poe, for her part, welcomed the ICI’s recommendation. “The ICI’s recommendation to refer me for further investigation by the ombudsman is a clear acknowledgement that former Usec. Bernardo’s allegations against me are false and that there is no evidence to support the filing of charges against me,” she said in a statement.
“This is no surprise to me and to the people who know me because I had always conducted myself with utmost integrity,” she added.
“Rest assured that I will submit to further investigations by the ombudsman to the end that the truth will actually be uncovered and appropriate charges are eventually brought against those who are truly responsible,” she said.