Ombudsman on alleged recantation of DPWH engineers: Just noise

The Office of the Ombudsman on Monday dismissed as noise reports that former Department of Public Works and Highways engineers Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez, and Jaypee Mendoza are recanting their testimonies linking senators and members of the House to the anomalous flood control projects.

“Seems like noise to us. We will only rely on sworn statements,” Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano said.

He added recanting will not hurt the prosecutors, but the former DPWH engineers themselves.

“Besides, that [recantation] would hurt their admission into witness protection,” he said.

The Department of Justice on Saturday said that Alcantara has not made an official recantation of his previous revelations

“The DOJ has not received or reviewed any affidavit from Henry Alcantara retracting his previous statements,” DOJ spokesperson Atty. Raphael Nicollo “Polo” Martinez told GMA News Online.

“There has been no official recantation by Alcantara whether written or verbal,” Martinez added.

The DOJ official was asked to clarify a report that Alcantara filed a counter-affidavit in relation to the complaints filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against him and other DPWH officials, Hernandez and Mendoza, over the alleged kickback schemes in a supposed ghost flood control project in Bulacan.

According to the report, Alcantara in his counter-affidavit said that there is no evidence that he favored any contractor, employee, or individual, and there is also no witness that he provided irregular payments, as the former DPWH officials argued that there is no sufficient evidence to convict him.

Alcantara further claimed that his subordinates “undertook and concealed the acts on their own.”

Martinez said that “there is nothing provided in the counter-affidavits that he [Alcantara] retracted any of his previous statements.”

Ombudsman prosecutors have filed two batches of charges against those allegedly involved in the flood control mess so far:

• malversation and graft charges filed vs. former Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co and 16 others with the Sandiganabayan over the P289 million substandard road dike project in Oriental Mindoro, and
• malversation and graft charges filed against contractor Sarah Discaya, among others, with the Digos City, Davao del Sur Regional Trial Court over the P96.5 million ghost flood control project in Davao Occidental.

On Monday, the Sandiganbayan Sixth Division resumed the hearing on the petition for bail filed by the nine DPWH officials who are co-accused of Co in the malversation case in the alleged substandard flood control project in Oriental Mindoro resumed before .

The prosecution presented Joanne Lacerna, Administrative Officer V, Records Management Section, as witness to testify on the tenure of the accused.

The bail hearing of the accused DPWH officials will continue on Tuesday, January 13. —AOL, GMA Integrated News