Lucas Bersamin denies 15% commitment, OES role in DPWH allocations

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on Thursday denied the imputation made before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee about a 15-percent commitment to the Office of the Executive Secretary related to P2.85 billion worth of projects that would utilize unprogrammed funds in the national budget.

“The imputation is not true,” Bersamin said in a press statement. 

“In the first place, the OES has no involvement in any way with budgetary allocations relevant to the DPWH,” he added. 

In a sworn statement he read before the Senate committee, former Department of Public Works and Highways Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo said Undersecretary Trygve Olaivar called him to discuss unprogrammed appropriations, allegedly for the Office of the Executive Secretary.

He said Olaivar requested him to submit a list of projects.

Upon his order, DPWH Bulacan First District Engineer Henry Alcantara submitted a list of projects worth P2.85 billion. He said he then submitted the list to Olaivar, who told him that the commitment is 15%.

“Thereafter, the DPWH received a Special Allotment Release Order for PhP2.85 billion for the projects,” Bernardo said.

“Engineer Alcantara, from time to tim,e would collect and deliver the agreed 15% commitment to me, which I delivered or caused to be delivered to Usec. Olaivar in Magallanes, Makati, and other places,” he added.

Bersamin said his office had no dealings with either Bernardo or Olaivar. 

He said that he stood by his untarnished record “as a long-serving public servant, first as a career judicial officer and now as the Executive Secretary.”

Olaivar has taken a leave of absence after his name was mentioned in the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on ghost and substandard flood control projects and kickbacks from government infrastructure.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara said Olaivar's leave was voluntary.

“As Secretary of Education, I assure the public that the Department of Education upholds the highest standards of integrity in all our work,” Angara said in a statement.

“Undersecretary Trygve L. Olaivar has taken a voluntary leave of absence to allow due process to take its course without distraction to the Department,” he added. –NB, GMA Integrated News