Pandi, Bulacan flood control site linked to Revilla had no structure —DPWH official

A prosecution witness from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said Tuesday that a project site of the alleged ghost P92.8-million flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan, the subject of the malversation case against former senator Ramon Bong Revilla, Jr. and six others, did not have any structure. 

DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office (DEO) officer-in-charge Kenneth Fernando made the testimony as a prosecution witness during Day 2 of the bail hearing of Revilla and six others at the Sandiganbayan in connection with the above-mentioned malversation case. 

“My team in Bulacan 1st DEO, based on the coordinates in the transparency portal, went to the project site to confirm [the status of the project]. It (site visit) was dated March 26. There are no seen structures,” Fernando said during the questioning of Sandiganbayan Third Division Associate Justice Ronald Moreno.

“Bushes and lushes are already in the site, Your Honor,” Fernando added.

Asked why he is certain that he visited the right coordinates for the project, Fernando replied, “I checked [this site based] on the available records in the Bulacan 1st DEO using the original plan, including the bidding and implementation [records] of the project.” 

“[The] second [document I checked] is the project detail matrix. This document is the one used by the district submitted to the regional office and central office,” Fernando said. 

Asked by Moreno if a project site can be changed once the contract is awarded to the contractor, Fernando said, “it is not allowed, Your Honor.” 

No signatures

Fernando, however, also told the anti-graft court that he did not see Revilla’s signatures in the DPWH Bulacan 1st DEO documents involving the Pandi, Bulacan project. 

After the proceedings, Revilla’s counsel Reody Anthony Balisi told reporters that the prosecution has failed to establish Revilla’s liability over the alleged ghost flood control project. 

“As far as senator Revilla is concerned, we have established thus far….from the documents presented and from the testimonies presented today, that he has no participation whatsoever and no involvement in this questioned project. Whether [the project was] ghost or not, he has no participation,” Balisi said.

"You have seen the admission of witnesses and even subject of stipulation that there is nothing in any of the documentary evidence that were presented so far, bulk of the documents, everything there, Senator Revilla has no signature,  no name, no involvement,” Balisi added.

In January this year, the Ombudsman filed malversation through the falsification of documents and graft charges against Revilla, former DPWH Bulacan Assistant District Engineer Brice Hernandez, and five others over the alleged P92.8-million ghost flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan. 

Revilla, who is detained at the New Quezon City Jail Male Dormitory in Payatas, Quezon City, has repeatedly denied involvement in the said alleged ghost flood control project. —KG, GMA News