Bonoan pressured to testify?

MANILA, Philippines —  Former public works secretary Manuel Bonoan might have been pressured to testify on the multibillion-peso flood control scandal, the camp of Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez said.

Romualdez’s spokesperson Ade Fajardo surmised that Bonoan is under a lot of pressure as he may soon be moved to a regular jail once he is medically cleared, which could be a factor on why he is implicating the former House speaker in the scam.

“There is a possibility that he would be medically cleared and transferred to a regular jail. That creates pressure in his mind. I think he’s more than 80 years old. Let us just say that he is at the twilight of his life on Earth, that’s why there is a lot of pressures in his mind,” Fajardo said over dzRH.

Bonoan continues to receive medical care for his ailments at the Philippine National Police General Hospital in Quezon City.

Lt. Col. Belany Bayani, the hospital’s internal medicine department chief, said Bonoan is undergoing treatment for a hypertensive vascular disease and chronic kidney disease.

Fajardo said they were surprised by reports of the ombudsman’s plans to use Bonoan against Romualdez, saying the former secretary has not spoken against the former speaker more than a year after the scandal came to light in July last year.

Fajardo said it is possible that Bonoan might be asked to fill the “evidentiary gap” on the case, although he clarified that he does not know if Bonoan was being manipulated.

Romualdez has been accused of manipulating the national budget to funnel funds for the flood control project corruption, but his camp has maintained that no investigation has shown his links to the two issues.

Last July 2, Romualdez’s lawyer Elaine Atienza maintained that attempts to link the Leyte lawmaker to the issue are “not supported by evidence” as the former speaker cannot have total control of the entire budget process.

Atienza pointed out that not even Bonoan has implicated Romualdez in past investigations and congressional hearings, simply because the congressman was not involved in the anomalous insertions.

Meanwhile, Rep. Toby Tiangco made a direct challenge to the administration of President Marcos to prove that it is not involved in any way in the scandal amid the filing of plunder charges by the ombudsman against elected officials.  – Ghio Ong, Delon Porcalla, Emmanuel Tupas