Ridon: Alcantara intentionally certified ghost flood control project as complete

Former Bulacan 1st District engineer Henry Alcantara intentionally certified the P55-million flood control project in Baliwag, Bulacan as completed even if he knew that it was a ghost or a non-existent one, House Committee on Public Accounts Chairman and Bicol Saro party-list Representative Terry Ridon told reporters.

“He is not only a big fish. He is a whale. Ang dami po talagang mga bagay po na talagang pinakialaman niya, and siyempre, may showing po talaga na ‘yung kanyang lifestyle is really different from ordinary engineers of the DPWH,” Ridon said Tuesday after the House Infrastructure Committee held its first day of inquiry into flood control projects. 

(He dipped his hands into a lot of things, and it was shown that his lifestyle is really different from ordinary engineers of the Department of Public Works and Highways [DPWH].)

Ridon was referring to Alcantara’s testimony that he signed the certificate of completion for the P55-million project in good faith since he trusted the report of his subordinates. However he also admitted that it was indeed a ghost project and that he was negligent of his duties since he did not inspect the site in person.

Ridon, however, junked Alcantara’s reasoning that it was just a matter of negligence.

“Negligence is his defense on this entire endeavor. We reject this defense. You cannot have plunder [of public funds] if you're just negligent. What I'm stating today is, he knew it. He intended to ghost it,” he stressed.

“We will get to the bottom of this, including other government projects in similar situations which were mentioned in the Senate hearing but are yet to be visited by the President,” Ridon added.

The P55-million project is the reinforced concrete riverwall project in Barangay Piel, Baliwag which President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. inspected on August 20. He found out that it was non-existent. Marcos said he was "extremely, more than disappointed...getting very angry."

A Senate hearing on Monday also revealed that Alcantara would go to casinos with engineers Brice Hernandez and Jaypee Mendoza, his former colleagues in the Bulacan 1st Engineering District.

Alcantara admitted that he used an alias and a fake ID to enter a casino.

Audit

Ridon then said that considering Alcantara’s admission, it might be useful for the government to hire a third party in auditing government projects and make the blacklisting of unscrupulous contractors permanent.

“We need the intervention of private sector inspectors over the entire course of project implementation and this was done by the DPWH during the time of Secretary Babes Singson. We cannot just surrender inspections to the DPWH as we have seen in Bulacan,” Ridon said.

“And there should be a perpetual blacklisting [of contractors]. Not just one or two years,” he added.

During the same interview, Ridon said lawmakers who will lie on their written disclosure that they do not have links to government contractors involved in anomalous flood control projects will have to do so at their own risk.

He was referring to the motion earlier approved by the House joint panel requiring the members of the House to disclose their links to government contractors involved in anomalous flood control projects, if there are any, to ensure the integrity of the House flood control panel probe.

“I will, we will take their word for it. It (disclosure of no conflict of interest) binds them. It is not a simple document that they sign. They have to go to a notary public for that,” Ridon said.

“But for example, it turns out these contractors are on their list of campaign donors, which I believe are available online, that they are apparently conflicted, that would be perjury and there’s an actual penalty for that and you can actually face an ethics complaint,” he added. —KG, GMA Integrated News