Dizon: Sarah Discaya, Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez, others in jail by Christmas

Former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Bulacan 1st District Engineer Henry Alcantara, former Asst. District Engineer Brice Hernandez and private contractor Sarah Discaya will be jailed by Christmas, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon said Thursday.

At the sidelines of the technical working group meeting called by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), Dizon said the three are part of the first ever complaint at the Ombudsman filed by his department on September 11 regarding the anomalous flood control projects.

Others charged by the DPWH were DPWH Construction Section chief John Michael Ramos, Planning and Design Section chief Ernesto Galang and 15 other DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office employees.

Also charged aside from Discaya were Ma. Angeline Rimando Rimando of St. Timothy Construction Corp., Sally Santos of SYMS Construction Trading, Mark Allan Arevalo of Wawao Builders and Robert Imperio of IM Contruction.

They were implicated in nine anomalous flood control projects worth P249M in Malolos, Hagonoy, Baliwag, Bulakan and Calumpit in Bulacan.

“First in, first out naman ang Ombudsman. Kampante kami na sa kulungan magpa-pasko ‘yung mga ‘yun kasi non-bailable na ‘un,” Dizon said.

(It's first in, first out at the Ombudsman. We are confident they will spend Christmas in jail because the [complaint] is non-bailable.) 

GMA News Online has reached out to the camp of Discaya but has yet to get a response as of posting time. Hernandez's camp refused to comment. GNO will publish the sides of the respondents once they are available.

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla had announced yesterday that they were targeting to file information at the court by November 25.  — RSJ, GMA Integrated News