DOJ subpoenas Estrada, Revilla, Bonoan over plunder complaints

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued subpoenas to Senator Jinggoy Estrada, former Public Works secretary Manuel Bonoan, and former senator Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. over the plunder complaints filed against them, Justice spokesperson Polo Martinez said Tuesday.

The preliminary investigation for the complaints are scheduled for February 2, Monday and February 12, Thursday.

“Subpoenas issued and waiting to complete receiving copies for their service to respondents,” Martinez said in a message to reporters.

Estrada and Bonoan are co-respondents in one of three plunder complaints filed with the Justice Department. 

Other respondents in the complaint are former DPWH undersecretaries Roberto Bernardo and the late Catalina Cabral, former DPWH regional director Gerard Opulencia, and former district engineer Henry Alcantara.

Meanwhile, another complaint was filed against Revilla, Bernardo, Opulencia, and Alcantara. 

Both complaints, filed by the National Bureau of Investigation, are for the violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, plunder, direct bribery and receiving gifts by public officers, and corruption of public officers.

It was Alcantara who linked Revilla and Estrada to the flood control controversy, claiming that he gave commissions from flood control projects to their camps.

Meanwhile, Bernardo tagged Bonoan in the scheme, claiming that the then-DPWH chief directed him to submit a list of projects for possible inclusion in the national expenditure program. 

Estrada, Revilla, and Bonoan have denied the allegations against them.

Revilla will be transferred to the New Quezon City Jail Male Dormitory after his seven-day quarantine. Last week, he surrendered to the police amid the Sandiganbayan’s issuance of an arrest warrant against him over an alleged P92.8-million ghost flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan. — BM, GMA Integrated News