Bernardo to testify for prosecution in flood control rap vs. Zaldy Co

Former Public Works Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo will testify for the prosecution in the malversation case filed against resigned Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co and 15 others in connection with an allegedly substandard P289 million flood control project in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.

This was after the Sandiganbayan Sixth Division allowed the Ombudsman’s prosecutors to add Bernardo to its list of witnesses as provided by the prosecution’s pre-trial brief.

Bernardo is one of the four state witnesses in the flood control mess enlisted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) along with former Bulacan First District Engineering Office District Engineer Henry Alcantara, engineer Gerard Opulencia, and contractor Sally Santos, owner and manager of SYMS Construction Trading. 

READ: Who is DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo?

In September 2025, Bernardo faced the Senate inquiry on the flood control mess and accused Co, Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero, and ex-senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Nancy Binay of alleged involvement in the kickback scheme of the flood control controversy.

Bernardo claimed that Co, then House appropriations panel chairman, once called to ask if Alcantara was easy to talk to.

“Engineer Alcantara then told me that Cong. Zaldy Co was asking for a 25% commission and of that amount, 2% was to be shared equally between Engineer Alcantara and myself,” he said then.

Bernardo also claimed that Alcantara allegedly told him that he made deliveries of cash to Co. 

During the bail hearings of the accused in the malversation case related to the Naujan flood control project, Commission on Audit (COA) Region 4B auditor Victoriano Acosta testified before the Sandiganbayan Sixth Division that the COA issued an P84 million notice of disallowance for the P289 million flood control project.

Acosta told the anti-graft court that the P289 million flood control project was “constructed not in accordance with plans and specifications.”

A notice of disallowance means that the expenditure is “either irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant, or unconscionable."

The next hearing for the malversation case for the Oriental Mindoro project is set on March 17 and 19. — JMA, GMA Integrated News