Floodgate of Corruption! DPWH Bigwigs Tagged in ₱2.2B Scam, One Flees to U.S.

Manila, Philippines — The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee is zeroing in on Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials as it intensifies its probe into alleged corruption in flood control projects worth billions of pesos.

Committee chair Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said DPWH Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral may be summoned after being accused of lobbying for budget insertions and later denying the act. Lacson revealed that Cabral sent a Viber message to Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III’s staff, asking whether he had priority projects that could be inserted into the proposed 2026 national budget.

Sotto declined the offer.

When DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon confronted Cabral, she denied the allegation. But Lacson countered, “She denied it to death. I had the screenshot and sent it to Secretary Vince. I told him, ‘This is the person you’re dealing with—lying through her teeth.’”

Former Undersecretary Flees to U.S.

The controversy deepened with reports that former DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo left for the United States after being implicated in the scandal. Lacson earlier named him as a partner of former DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan in a construction firm that allegedly pocketed ₱2.195 billion from flood control projects in Bulacan between 2018 and 2024.

Bernardo, a Mapua Institute of Technology graduate, rose from the ranks starting in 1986 to become one of DPWH’s most influential undersecretaries, managing major infrastructure projects in the Visayas, NCR, and MIMAROPA. He was closely associated with former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, who once appointed him to lead Manila’s city engineering office.

During the Senate hearing on September 8, contractors Sarah and Curlee Discaya accused Bernardo of demanding commissions of up to 25% from project budgets. Bernardo denied the allegations, presenting a DPWH Legal Service certification that he had no pending administrative cases.

DOJ Asked to Issue Immigration Alerts

DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon has asked the Department of Justice to issue an Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order (ILBO) against Bonoan and several others, including Candaba, Pampanga Mayor Rene Maglanque and MBB Global Properties Corporation officials Macy Monique Maglangue, Sunshine Bernardo, and Fatima Gay dela Cruz.

“An investigation is being conducted on DPWH officials and company officers allegedly involved in ghost projects and substandard flood control works,” Dizon said. He emphasized that the ILBO is critical to prevent suspects from evading accountability.