Money recovered from flood control kickbacks reaches P841 million – DOJ
MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday said a total of P841 million in cash has been recovered and remitted to the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) since the start of the restitution in the flood control scandal last year.
Latest data provided by DOJ spokesperson Polo Martinez showed that the total money returned to the government through the Land Bank of the Philippines as of June 3 came from four individuals accepted into the department’s Witness Protection Program (WPP).
The biggest chunk came from dismissed Department of Public Works (DPWH) undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, who gave back a total of P500 million. He was followed by former Bulacan district engineer Henry Alcantara, who returned P181.4 million; suspended National Capital Region District Engineer Gerard Opulencia, P140 million; and SYMS Construction Trading owner Sally Santos, P20 million.
The DOJ received the first round of restitution in November after Alcantara handed over P110 million, which was part of the P300 million he claimed he got as kickbacks from infrastructure projects in Bulacan province.
READ: Ex-DPWH engineer returns P110M of P300M ‘kickbacks’
In his fifth State of the Nation Address on Monday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed that all of the money to be recovered from those linked to the flood control project anomalies would immediately be remitted to the BTr.
Marcos said he leaves it up to the Office of the Ombudsman and the National Prosecution Service (NPS) of the DOJ to lead in the recovery of stolen money and assets.
For its part, the DOJ said that it would closely coordinate with the Office of the Ombudsman and thanked the President for its confidence in the NPS.
“The President’s message was plain: what is recovered belongs to the Filipino people, and those who betrayed the public trust must answer before the courts,” it said in a statement to reporters. “Where the law places a case in our hands, we will build it to the standards that stand in court. That is what the rule of law requires, and what the Filipino people deserve.” /jpv
