House Majority Leader and Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. on Sunday accused Budget Secretarty Benjamin Diokno and a senior official of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) of being behind a multi-billion-peso flood control scam in Bicol.
Andaya, House committee on rules chairperson, said legal and proper procedures for flood control projects were allegedly bypassed by conspirators, and that requests were made through Viber messages to avoid any paper trail.
He said the testimony of district and regional officials of DPWH in Bicol during last Jan. 3 hearing of his committee in Naga City on the alleged shortcut process for flood control projects’ requests indicated a connivance among high-ranking government officials.
“The public hearing in Naga has raised more questions than answers. The testimonies given under oath by those subpoenaed indicated a top-level conspiracy in the multibillion-peso flood control scam that may involve ranking officials of government. At the very least, the testimonies and evidence point to DBM Secretary Benjamin Diokno in conspiracy with a senior DPWH official,” he said.
The Budget chief, has consistently denied any wrongdoing in the budget process and the allegations against him.
READ: Budget chief faces House 'hot seat'
Andaya cleared DPWH Secretary Mark Villar of any participation.
“I doubt if Secretary Villar is in the loop with this modus operandi. He could be blindsided by some DPWH officials involved in the flood control scam. We hope he can help us get to the bottom of this,” Andaya said.
READ: House mulls over plunder raps in Bicol pork scam
The lawmaker said his panel would summon several senior DPWH officials, including Ma. Catalina Cabral, undersecretary for planning and public-private partnership service; Rafael Yabut, senior undersecretary for Regional Operations in Luzon, and Patrick Gatan, project director of flood control management cluster.
The committee would also issue subpoena decus tecum for official documents and transaction records related to flood control projects implemented between 2017 and 2018.
“The testimonies from the DPWH regional office and district offices in Bicol were very clear. Top DPWH officials were ignoring Department Order No. 23 to bypass strict requirements for flood control projects. Somebody up there could have given the instruction to cut short the process for flood control project,” Andaya said.
“Whoever is downloading these instructions to the DPWH district engineers is possibly the one in cahoots with Secretary Diokno. These flood control projects submitted by the district engineers were then used to come up with a list of projects for approval by Secretary Diokno,” he said.
“We will identify them in the next hearing,” he added.
READ: Andaya to prove Diokno insertions