We reconvene today for the eighth public hearing on the motu proprio inquiry in aid of legislation and investigation into the flood control anomaly, even as we are already finalizing the partial committee report to be routed to your offices as early as next week.
Contrary to the lies and obfuscations that naysayers are trying to spread around, your Blue Ribbon Committee has accomplished so much since the flood control scandal broke wide open in the middle of last year. Since then, waves of information have dominated the national discourse — at every level of our society, local and national.
Lest we be drowned out by the rising tide of noise here and there, allow me to run down how much ground we have covered in the course of the committee’s seven public hearings:
Since the Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office was exposed as the epicenter of the biggest corruption saga in recent history, your Committee was able to hear and record the sworn testimonies of DPWH District Engineer Henry Alcantara, ADE Brice Hernandez, Jaypee Mendoza and the rest of the so-called BGC boys and laid bare their collective splurging of billions of pesos in several casinos made possible by their indispensable roles in a mafia-like scheme – not from extortion for protection activities involving business establishments but through an elaborate conspiracy in siphoning funds from the country’s national budget intended for flood control projects to protect lives and properties of Filipinos in low-lying areas.
Then there was former DPWH Usec Roberto Bernardo.
Your committee followed the money and paper trails through skillful research and questioning by our members which revealed the deep web of “in-house contracting,” “bid rigging,” “padded contract costs,” and “license renting”. This scam was so systematic and brazen, resulting in substandard infrastructure and, worse, ghost flood control projects.
In the hearings that followed, the case of Bulacan proved to be a gateway — the microcosm of a much more complex and institutionalized plunder within the bureaucracy.
Your committee became the stage for shocking and scathing revelations made by the key actors of the flood control scam. We conduct these hearings with such fairness and integrity that those with the truth felt motivated to come forward to testify while others became tentative and unsure of which path to trek.
Let me emphasize one point: we always go where the evidence leads us. We do not target any particular person; nor do we have the intention to cover up for anybody.
Thus, we uncovered the top-to-bottom systemic misuse and abuse of public funds involving high officials in the executive and legislative branches, even the Commission on Audit.
Sa kasalukuyan, as I speak- may mga nakasakdal na sa Sandiganbayan at sa mga regular na korte ng bansa at marami pa ang sumasailim sa preliminary investigations ng Ombudsman at Department of Justice – mga contractors at matataas na opisyal ng ehekutiba at lehislatura at iba pang sangay ng pamahalaan.
As of the latest count, at least P21.7B in bank accounts and other forms of assets are frozen upon written order by the Court of Appeals.
May mga sumasailalim na rin sa Witness Protection Program ng DOJ upang tumulong palakasin ang mga ebidensya habang nanangangakong mag-restitute ng napagkasunduang halaga sa ilalim ng mga pinirmahang MOA with the WPP tungo sa logical conclusion ng mga kasong plunder, malversation of public funds through falsification, violations of anti-graft laws at iba pang krimen.
We laid out how this deeply rooted scheme operates with systemic precision. It involves a network of actors: namely, the Contractors Group, who collude among themselves – to rig public biddings and monopolize flood control projects; key DPWH coordinators, who manage project allocations and orchestrate the collection and delivery of kickbacks; and intermediaries, agents or bagmen, who receive these illicit funds allegedly in behalf of their principals.
Naging daan din ang mga pagdinig ng komite upang mabuklat ang usapin ng conflict of interest sa Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board o PCAB. We also flagged blacklisted companies resurfacing under new names, the rampant practice of license-renting, and the awarding of billion-peso contracts to severely undercapitalized firms
Modesty aside, your Committee paved the way for the implementation of landmark transparency reforms in our national budget process. These include our transition to livestream and open bicam that detailed budget amendments, insertions if you like, that are now traceable to their proponents, not to mention stricter safeguards to ensure that no vague or undefined infrastructure projects are included in the General Appropriations Act.
Let this serve as a warning to skeptics, detractors, and hijackers who exploit the vulnerabilities and anger of our people to deepen the fault lines of our nation during these trying times:
Your noise will not silence the truth; neither does it provide any help in our investigation. Your noise cannot convict – and won’t even indict the malefactors in this flood control mess. Only evidence does.
Para ipangalandakan ninyo na inutil at walang silbi ang Blue Ribbon Committee – is not only insensitive to its members but an insult to our fellow Filipinos who have consistently followed our hearings and participated in the trillion-peso march – the clergy, students, ordinary workers and all concerned citizens who became aware and exposed to unbridled and systemic corruption mainly made possible by the Blue Ribbon Committee hearings and the media who serve as a powerful tool in bringing to the households, eateries, barbershops, etc. the details of each and every hearing of your Blue Ribbon Committee.
With all that being said – as the Chairman of this committee – I say to you: Shut the f… up!
Let us now resume our hearing
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