Discayas do a ‘tell-all plus plus’ at ICI – lawyer

Disgraced contractor couple Pacifico “Curlee” and Cezarah “Sarah” Discaya did a “tell-all plus plus” when they appeared before the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI) yesterday.

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Cornelio Samaniego III, the couple's legal counsel, said the Discayas were fully cooperative and bared everything they know to the ICI.

“They are not hiding anything anymore,” he said.

Samaniego said his clients divulged everything — from the persons involved up to the history of transactions they had undertaken.

"We are telling everything," he stressed." Pressed on the revelations made by his clients before the commission, Samaniego said that most were already included in the affidavit they had filed before the Senate and Congress, yet there were also new names bared by his clients to the commission.

"We'll submit a supplemental affidavit, so we will add new names. In due time, it will come out," Samaniego said. "For now, no comment." Samaniego said his clients were scheduled to come back to the ICI to finish giving their statement.

"It went OK. The members of the ICI were very cordial," Samaniego said.

He added that unlike former DPWH Bulacan district engineer Brice Hernandez, the Discayas are not inclined to return any of their luxury cars to the government as a goodwill gesture.

"We are not returning anything at the moment, because the accounts were frozen," Samaniego said.

AMLC, BIR tie-up

Meanwhile, the ICI has forged a cooperation and information-sharing pact with the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) that will facilitate the freezing of assets of personalities implicated in the numerous ghost and substandard flood control projects at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

ICI executive director Brian Keith Hosaka said the agreement, which also includes the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), will speed up investigation of the anomalous flood control projects, the filing of the relevant criminal cases as well as the recovery of the proceeds.