Bersamin denies DPWH exec’s claim of 15% commission cut

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin. File photo.

MANILA, Philippines — Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on Thursday denied allegations made by former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo that a certain Department of Education (DepEd) official had demanded a 15 percent commission from P2.85-billion worth of infrastructure projects, supposedly for the Office of the Executive Secretary (OES).

In a statement, Bersamin said, “I deny the imputation contained in the sworn statement of DPWH Undersecretary Bernardo submitted to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee about the delivery of ‘agreed 15% commitment ‘supposedly for the Office of the Executive Secretary. The imputation is not true.”

READ: LIVE: Senate hearing on flood control corruption resumes today, Sept. 25

Defending his non-involvement, Bersamin stressed that the Office of the Executive Secretary “has no involvement whatsoever with budgetary allocations relevant to the DPWH.”

“In the second place, the OES has no dealings whatsoever with either Undersecretary Bernardo or DepEd Undersecretary Trygve Olaivar (who has earlier denied the allegations made by Undersecretary Bernardo),” he also said.

Bersamin added that he stands by his “untarnished record” as a long-serving public servant, first as a judicial officer and now as the Executive Secretary.

In a sworn affidavit, Bernardo alleged that Olaivar demanded a 15 percent cut from the billion-peso worth of infrastructure projects, supposedly for Bersamin.

“Usec. Olaivar personally called me for a meeting to discuss ‘Unprogrammed Appropriations’ supposedly for the Office of the Executive Secretary. In the said meeting, he requested me to submit a list of projects,” Bernardo said in his affidavit he read during a Senate blue ribbon committee hearing earlier in the day.

The committee resumed its hearing on the alleged irregularities in the country’s flood control projects. /jpv