Senate panel cites ex-Bulacan engineer Alcantara for contempt

Former DPWH-Bulacan District Engineer Henry Alcantara —GRIG C.MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — The former district engineer of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Bulacan was cited by the Senate blue ribbon panel for contempt after accusing him of lying in the upper chamber’s investigation into alleged irregularities in flood-control projects.

Sen. Erwin Tulfo moved Thursday to penalize Henry Alcantara following his repeated claims that he was unaware of the scheme surrounding the flood control mess in Bulacan.

“That ghost project—I really don’t know anything about that ghost project,” said Alcantara.

Tulfo countered that Alcantara had lied several times during the hearing.

“The low-ranking [personnel] have committed crimes, and you have not? You are the district engineer. You don’t know that there is a ghost project? You also don’t know anything… that your budget ballooned? That surge in your funds, that did not pass through your table? I think this person is lying, so we have to ask him to show cause why he should not be cited for contempt today,” said Tulfo.

Committee chair Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson then asked Alcantara to answer.

Alcantara insisted that once a project shows up in the General Appropriations Act, they just “implement” it.

“Actually, what I am saying is, on [the] ghost project, I really don’t know anything about that. The one who will prove [it] is the project engineer beside me, who is beside me, on how that happened,” said Alcantara.

Tulfo rejected Alcantara’s explanation as “unacceptable” and sought the former DPWH district engineer’s citation for contempt, which was approved without objection.

Earlier, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon found Alcantara guilty of multiple administrative cases for his alleged involvement in “anomalous” infrastructure projects in Bulacan.

In a decision signed by Dizon dated September 4, the administrative cases specifically filed in which Alcantara was found guilty were “Disloyalty to the Republic of the Philippines and to the Filipino People, Grave Misconduct, Gross Neglect in the Performance of Duty, and Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service.”

Alcantara was slapped with the penalty of “dismissal from the service with the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification to hold public office.”

“This decision is without prejudice to the filing of separate civil or criminal charges against him and his co-conspirators,” Dizon said in the order. /apl/abc