No holiday furlough for Curlee Discaya, 3 ex-DPWH engineers —Lacson

Embattled contractor Pacifico "Curlee" Discaya II and three other former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) engineers currently detained in the Senate for their alleged links to the flood control controversy would not be given holiday furlough “due to security concerns,” Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo "Ping" Lacson said Tuesday.

Lacson, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, said Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III approved his recommendation to deny the leave requests of Discaya and former engineers Brice Hernandez, Jaypee Mendoza, and Henry Alcantara.

"I recommended to the Senate President that their request for Christmas furlough be denied mainly for security reasons, owing to the repeated media statements from Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that arrest warrants against them will be issued before Christmas," Lacson said in a statement.

"So the risk of escape becomes greater - not to mention that it makes no sense to grant such requests for Christmas leave if indeed warrants are coming out by then," he added.

Lacson said the four individuals would only be allowed to hear mass in the Senate, and that their families may visit them inside the premises over the holidays.

"That’s the most that we can allow given the circumstances," he said.

To recall, Discaya was cited in contempt by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee for lying about the absence of his wife, Sarah, during a hearing on anomalous flood control projects on September 18.

Hernandez, on the other hand, was cited in contempt by the panel on September 8, while Alcantara and Mendoza were cited in contempt on September 18. 

According to Lacson, Alcantara had sought a holiday leave through the Department of Justice (DOJ). 

Last month, the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) recommended to the Office of the Ombudsman the filing of plunder, direct or indirect bribery, and falsification of public documents charges against Hernandez, Alcantara, and Mendoza. 

Lacson said he hopes that the Office of the Ombudsman will soon file charges against individuals linked in the flood control mess. 

"I hope the Office of the Ombudsman can make good on their publicly stated timelines to file the information before the Sandiganbayan and other venues, assuming that probable cause is clearly established against those responsible for the plunder of public funds, if only to strike fear among those who still entertain the idea that they can get away with stealing our citizens’ hard-earned tax money, especially now that the 2026 budget measure remains under public scrutiny in spite of our efforts to cleanse the same of 'pork' and self-aggrandizing 'insertions' possibly orchestrated by some incorrigible members of Congress," the senator said. —VAL, GMA Integrated News