By Benjamin Pulta | Philippine News Agency
The Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) on Tuesday urged the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate former Department of Public Works and Highways officials over a P72 million ghost flood control project in Plaridel, Bulacan.
In an Interim Report, the ICI chairperson, Andres Reyes Jr. identified the project as the Riverbank Protection Structure in Barangay Bagong Silang which has been constructed in a different site and was found to be substandard.
Recommended in the investigation were former DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan and former Undersecretaries Roberto Bernardo and Maria Catalina Cabral for possible breach of Republic Act No. 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.
The ICI likewise urged the Ombudsman to assess whether charges may be filed against former DPWH Bulacan First District Engineering Office District Engineer Henry Alcantara, Assistant District Engineer Brice Ericson Hernandez, Ernesto Galang, Jaypee Mendoza, John Michael Ramos, Irene Ontingco, Joshua Blitz Roxas, and Bernardo Villafuerte for malversation, and violations of Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and Government Procurement Reform Act.
Likewise named was Eumir Villanueva, corporate officers and board of directors of Topnotch Catalyst Builders Inc., the project contractor.
The ICI said it was determined that there was a complete absence of any work or structure at the site indicated in the approved bid plans and contract.
It said the scheme could not have been carried out without the “participation or gross inexcusable negligence” of certain public officials and private individuals in securing the necessary funding, facilitating the award of the project, and complying with the required post-audit requirements.
“The above-described scheme perpetrated by senior DPWH employees was made possible because Secretary Bonoan betrayed such trust reposed in him. He miserably failed to exercise simple diligence tantamount to fraud in ensuring the judicious use of public funds entrusted to DPWH. As clearly shown by DPWH documents cited herein, the plunder of public funds happened right under his nose” the ICI report said.
It added that Bernardo and Cabral’s duties and responsibilities “made them intimately in the know of the activities of senior DPWH officials and responsible for the overall economical, efficient and effective administration of public funds entrusted to DPWH.”
“The other individuals were found liable for the falsity in the contents of the Certificate of Completion,” the ICI said. (PNA)
