The head of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) on Thursday said that the administrative liability findings against former Public Works chief Manuel Bonoan in the flood control anomalies could escalate into criminal charges should the fact-finding body gather more evidence and witnesses.
ICI Chair Andres Reyes Jr. told reporters that ‘more cases are coming,’ but said the commission could not yet determine possible criminal liability on the part of Bonoan based on the level of evidence currently available.
In its fourth round of recommendations to the Office of the Ombudsman, the ICI asked that the latter look into whether Bonoan, along with former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretaries Roberto Bernardo and Maria Catalina Cabral, could be held administratively liable for the P95.04-million flood control project in Bocaue, Bulacan province, which was found to be nonexistent despite being declared completed and fully paid for.
The contractors that received the total project amount were Topnotch Catalyst Builders, Inc. and Beam Team Developer Specialist, Inc., which entered into a joint venture for the project involving the construction of a 147-linear-meter ‘concrete slope protection structure.’
This prompted the ICI to recommend the filing of administrative charges – specifically, violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees – against the three high-ranking DPWH officials. ‘We can escalate the findings against Bonoan and (others). But right now, this is the only evidence we have. What is important is that the case is gaining traction already,’ Reyes said at a press briefing before sending the latest ICI report to the Office of the Ombudsman.
The former Supreme Court justice called for more ‘whistleblowers’ who can provide additional testimonies and evidence that could link other personalities or further bolster the cases involving ‘ghost’ or substandard infrastructure projects.
‘We need people who will speak out. As I said the other day, these are criminal minds, masterminds. These are planned already and they know how to get away with it, like hiding records of their conversations,’ he said.
Meanwhile, the three-man panel asked the Office of the Ombudsman to consider filing graft, malversation, and falsification charges against eight DPWH engineers in the first district of Bulacan – namely, former district engineer Henry Alcantara; former assistant district engineer Brice Hernandez; Jaime Hernandez, officer in charge of maintenance; Ernesto Galang, chief of planning and design; project engineer John Carlo Rivera; and John Michael Marcos, Claudine Magsakay, and Ericka Chico, all of whom held Engineer II positions during the project period.
This is the second time that Alcantara and Hernandez – two engineers who oversaw and approved the flagged flood control projects in the first district of Bulacan – have been implicated in ICI reports.