Ex-Public Works Secretary eyed as state witness in graft case

Ombudsman prosecutors are considering fielding former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan as a witness in the malversation case against former Senator Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. and six others in connection with the allegedly non-existent P92.8 million flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan. “For all Wednesdays [of July], it is for our last four witnesses. Maybe we will be presenting former Secretary Manuel Bonoan as our last witness, your honor,” the Ombudsman panel of prosecutors told the Sandiganbayan Third Division on Tuesday. Bonoan is facing a P573 million plunder and graft charge before the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division and another graft charge before the Sandiganbayan Second Division, also in relation to his alleged pocketing of government funds off flood control projects. But Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla earlier the Ombudsman has already reached an agreement with Bonoan for the former Cabinet official to serve as state witness for the flood control cases that the government will be filing before the Sandiganbayan and other appropriate courts. “We already have a side agreement for the cooperation of former Secretary Manuel Bonoan to be a state witness, to be a cooperating witness,” Remulla said at a press conference Monday. “We will ask the court to discharge him as a respondent so he can testify for us as a state witness,” he added. When the Ombudsman prosecutors filed the plunder and graft charges against Bonoan last May 28, Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano said that Bonoan, alongside Senator Jinggoy Estrada as well as DPWH National Capital Region District Engineers Manny Bulusan, Arturo Gonzalez, Jr. and Assistant District Engineer Denryl Caesar Cortuna, were involved in an “intricate mechanism involving illegal budgetary insertions and project allocations within the DPWH infrastructure portfolio for fiscal year 2025.” “Our evaluation shows that substantial public funds were deliberately funneled into designated infrastructure projects in exchange for predetermined commission fees or kickbacks,” Clavano said then. The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division, earlier in June, allowed Bonoan to be placed under hospital arrest and confined at the Philippine National Police General Hospital in Camp Crame. During Tuesday’s hearing on the malversation case, DPWH Bulacan First District Engineering Office officer in charge Construction Chief, Engr. Jay-Ar Amazona, testified that the P92.8 million Pandi project did not have a Certificate of Inspection which is a requirement for first billing. “This is a requirement under Department Order 11 issued in 2021,” Amazona said. Amazona said that the Certificate of Inspection should be done by Chief of Construction section under Department Order 11 issued in 2021. Defense lawyers, however, said the said Department Order was not explicit in stating that such responsibility is on the Construction Section chief. Amazona, however, conceded that the Statement of Work Accomplishment is not done by Project Engineers alone, and that the contractor of the project can revise the Monthly Certificate of Payment and Statement of Work Accomplishment. Likewise, Amazona also told the anti-graft court that the Monthly Certificate of Payment and Statement of Work Accomplishment are first signed by contractors, and that these documents should be approved by the Assistant District Engineer and District Engineer before disbursement vouchers are issued for payment. Without such approval, Amazona said the billing should not have been processed. Associate Justice Ronald Moreno then asked Amazona if he is open to amending the Department Order 11 to make it more specific on duties and responsibilities of each official. Amazona responded by saying that he could suggest improvements but the amendment is ultimately the decision of the DPWH Central Office. — RSJ, GMA News