MANILA — After the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) recommended the filing of criminal charges before the Office of the Ombudsman against several lawmakers and government officials, senators Joel Villanueva and Jinggoy Estrada have vehemently denied allegations linking them to a multimillion-peso flood control scam.
Villanueva said his legal team is carefully reviewing the ICI’s recommendation and will await the Ombudsman’s official action before issuing a detailed response.
“Nevertheless, records of the Senate will show that I have been against flood control projects from the very beginning. I was the one who exposed and questioned these flood control projects that have not been implemented,” Villanueva said. “All these, at the proper time, will prove my innocence.”
Estrada, for his part, dismissed the accusations as baseless, stressing that he never received or benefited from any flood control allocation.
“Wala akong tinanggap na anumang pondong nakalaan para sa mga flood control projects, at kaya kong patunayan ito sa hukuman. Ang mga paratang laban sa akin ay pawang hearsay o batay lamang sa sabi-sabi,” Estrada said.
He vowed to clear his name, asserting, “Lilinisin ko ang aking pangalan, at buo ang aking tiwala na sa tamang panahon, mananaig ang katotohanan.”
Estrada added that the ICI’s move “does not weaken” his resolve to prove that he has “done nothing wrong.”
Apart from Villanueva and Estrada, the ICI also urged the Ombudsman to file plunder, bribery, and corruption charges against former lawmakers Zaldy Co and Mitch Cajayon, Commission on Audit Commissioner Mario Lipana, and former Public Works undersecretary Roberto Bernardo.
ICI chairman Andres Reyes Jr. said testimonies revealed that certain lawmakers had allegedly informed engineer Henry Alcantara of their available budget allocations for infrastructure projects — setting off a kickback scheme centered on flood control works.
“Additionally, the scheme shall always involve flood control projects because the kickback is 25% to 30%, higher than the kickback for other projects which is only at 10%,” Reyes said.
The revelations stemmed from statements made by former Bulacan assistant district engineer Brice Hernandez, who claimed the senators received around 30% in commissions from nearly P1 billion worth of projects in the province.
Dismissed district engineer Henry Alcantara also confessed that he coordinated with Bernardo in distributing kickbacks to the camps of Villanueva, Estrada, Co, Cajayon, and former senator Bong Revilla Jr./PN
