Speed Up! The citizenry should pressure the DoJ and the OMB

In a broadcast interview in October, then newly appointed Prosecutor General (PG) Richard Anthony Donayre Fadullion said the filing of charges against senators and House of Representatives members implicated in the flood control scandal should not be rushed, as demanded by many civil society groups.

He said the affidavits of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, engineers Henry Alcantara, Bryce Hernandez, and the contractor Discaya couple still have to be supported by incontrovertible evidence. We cannot rely solely on their stories, because if the matter is brought up in court, the defense lawyers will scrutinize every detail in their stories during the cross-examinations to ascertain the credibility of the witnesses, he explained.

If they are admitted as state witnesses, they would be immune to criminal liability. That is why the Department of Justice (DoJ) needs to be very careful as to who is admitted as a state witness, he added.

Sarah Discaya and her husband formally applied for admittance into the DoJ’s Witness Protection Program (WPP). They were granted “protected witness” status while their application was being evaluated. However, her status as a potential state witness is still pending a final decision. As of December 2025 and early January 2026, the DoJ has insisted she must provide a full and truthful testimony and potentially agree to restitution of government funds to be fully admitted.

Then Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla clarified, however, that the Discaya couple, as well as five other DPWH engineers, would still undergo strict evaluation to see if they qualify as state witnesses.

“We’re very careful about the state witness status. It takes a lot of doing to declare a person as a state witness because you’re freeing them completely from criminal liability,” the Justice Secretary explained.

Now comes the counter-affidavit of Henry Alcantara recanting his earlier sworn testimony before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on alleged kickbacks and ghost flood control projects in Bulacan. Back in September, Alcantara read before the Senate committee a sworn statement where he implicated Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva and Rep. Zaldy Co. The sworn statement said that he personally delivered portions of project funds to the alleged recipients.

In the counter-affidavit he submitted to the DoJ on Jan. 5, Alcantara denied authorizing, participating in, or benefiting from any ghost projects, saying there is no evidence or witness directly linking him to irregular payouts, falsified reports, or procurement irregularities. The counter-affidavit says the charges against him should be dismissed for “lack of prima facie evidence with reasonable certainty of conviction, absence of essential elements of the offense, and violation of constitutional rights.”

That must be the reason why now Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla didn’t file charges against Senators Francis Escudero, Estrada, and Villanueva, along with former senators Ramon Revilla and Nancy Binay, on Dec. 15. He told reporters in a November interview that arrest warrants could possibly be issued by the Sandiganbayan before Christmas, specifically on Dec. 15 or 16.

Alcantara was provisionally admitted to the Witness Protection Program. As such, he has to reveal all he knows about the crime he was involved in. If, during the course of the investigation, it was learned how much he got from a project, that would be the basis of how much he should return.

Alcantara’s turnaround could be the aftermath of the failure of the DoJ and Alcantara to agree on the conditions to his being admitted as state witness in the case against the senators and congressman he implicated in the flood control anomalies.

If Alcantara now denies authorizing, participating in, or benefiting from any ghost projects, why did he return, through his lawyer, more than P200 million supposedly linked to misappropriated public funds? He turned over to the DoJ P110 million on Nov. 28, another P40 million in cash on Dec. 16, and another P71.37 million in cash on Dec. 19. Alcantara said the money was part of the alleged P300 million in “kickbacks” he received from anomalous flood control projects in Bulacan. Isn’t returning kickback money an admission of benefiting from anomalous projects?

The recantation of Alcantara proved Mr. Fadullion right in saying that the filing of charges against lawmakers implicated in the flood control scandal should not be rushed. Civil society groups should instead put pressure on the DoJ and the Office of the Ombudsman (to speed up the gathering of both incontrovertible and circumstantial evidence of graft and corruption on the part of legislators involved in flood control projects instead of being tied down by plea bargaining witnesses who can retract their previous sworn statements at any time, like Alcantara just did.

In September last year, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued a pastoral letter titled “Beyond Survival: Rising Above the Floods of Corruption.” It was the bishops’ reaction to the widespread corruption in government flood-control projects. They called on their flock to commit themselves to rejecting patronage politics, joining civic and parish initiatives in movements for good governance and ecological justice, and insisting on legal action, including criminal charges against those guilty of systematically plundering public funds.

Here are excerpts from the pastoral letter:

“Survival cannot be the standard of our politics. We must demand visible accountability: quick audits, real penalties, and transparency that people can see.

“Let us rise above the floods of corruption together. Let justice roll down like waters across our land. Let us rebuild our nation on truth, justice, and the common good.”

In my column of Dec. 9, 2025, I wrote that for the CBCP pastoral letters to have impact on their flock, more bishops should be more visibly politically active — meaning open critics of bad governance — like Kalookan Archbishop Cardinal Pablo David, the immediate past president of the CBCP, and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, also a former president of the CBCP. They had been denouncing the abuses and maladministration of public officials long before the flood control scandal broke out.

We call on other bishops, particularly those of dioceses where there are anomalous public works projects like the dioceses of Malolos (which includes the whole province of Bulacan) or where powerful dynasties rule like the diocese of San Fernando de La Union.

One bishop who has shown signs of political activism is Balanga Bishop Rufino Sescon, Jr. He used the “Misa Mayor,” the High Mass that starts the celebration of the Feast of the Black Nazarene, as a platform to denounce corruption.

In his homily during the Misa Mayor at the Quirino Grandstand last Friday, the bishop linked the Black Nazarene theme of humility to the multi-billion flood control scam. He preached, “Brothers and sisters, let us learn from Jesus the Nazarene who came down for the sake of love. In our country, there are those who refuse to step down even though their wrongdoing has been exposed and is causing hardship to the poor.”

He called on them to “step down voluntarily” for the sake of the nation, especially the poor who suffer the most from such anomalies. He addressed those responsible, telling them, “Shame on you! Step down from your post voluntarily.”

Traditionally, the Archbishop of Manila presides over the Misa Mayor, but Cardinal Jose Advincula, Archbishop of Manila, was in Rome for the Extraordinary Consistory called by Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Jan. 7-8. In place of Cardinal Advincula, Bishop Sescon was chosen because he was once rector of Quiapo Church, home of the Black Nazarene.

Bishop Sescon was ordained a priest by then-Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jaime Sin and then served as the Cardinal’s assistant secretary, and subsequently, as his personal secretary from 2001. And he speaks like the protege of Cardinal Sin that he is, critical of corrupt public officials.

In 2025, Bishop Sescon addressed the issue of corruption during his episcopal ordination and in subsequent pastoral statements. His statements included a call for officials to “willingly come forward with such courage to tell the truth” and “honestly confess their acts of injustice and corruption.”

He also urged them to “accept to make this type of open confession and express their willingness to return whatever they have taken… corruptly stolen from the people.” He encouraged citizens to “demand accountability” and “denounce corruption in all its forms.”

The CBCP has a new president, Archbishop Gilbert Garcera of the Archdiocese of Lipa. We hope he will lead the CBCP like Cardinal David and Archbishop Villegas, both past CBCP presidents, did.

Oscar P. Lagman, Jr. has been a keen observer of Philippine politics since the mid-1950s.