The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division dropped the plunder and graft charges against former Public Works and Highways Secretary Manuel Bonoan.
‘He (Bonoan) is no longer an accused in the two cases before the Fifth [Division],’ a member of the prosecution team told the Inquirer on Tuesday.
‘But I think the other accused will file [an] MR (motion for reconsideration),’ they added.
Another source likewise confirmed the development.
Bonoan was accused alongside Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, DPWH district engineers Manny Bulusan and Arturo Gonzales Jr., and assistant district engineer Denryl Caesar Cortuna over an alleged scheme involving P573 million in kickbacks in connection with the infrastructure corruption scandal.
Last August, the Second Division, which handles the second count of graft against Estrada and Bonoan, denied the motion to charge the former secretary.
Bonoan resigned from his post in September 2025, despite maintaining days earlier that he would not be stepping down from his post following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s order to investigate alleged anomalies in flood control projects.
In November 2025, the now-defunct Independent Commission for Infrastructure found Bonoan administratively liable for flood control projects in Bulacan province that were supposedly never built.
Last January, the Department of Justice said Bonoan would likewise face a criminal case for plunder.
In July, the Office of the Ombudsman sought to discharge Bonoan as part of a bid to turn him into a state witness in other flood control corruption scandal-related cases.
Bonoan first testified before the anti-graft court last August in the case against Sen. Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Jr., who was linked to a P76.91-million flood-control project in Pandi, Bulacan, which state prosecutors claimed to be ‘non-existent.’
There, Bonoan claimed ‘all senators’ in 2024 had availed of a ‘leadership fund’ allotted by his agency under the 2025 budget