Alcantara bares 30% kickback scheme

Several lawmakers and a former undersecretary were behind the alleged anomalous budget insertions and kickbacks from flood control projects in Bulacan from 2022 to 2025 worth hundreds of billions of pesos, sacked public works district engineer Henry Alcantara said in a sworn affidavit he read before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee yesterday.

- MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB

Alcantara, who served as officer-in-charge assistant regional director of DPWH Region 4-A and district engineer of Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office, pointed to former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo as a central figure in what he described as a systemic scheme involving billions of pesos worth of projects.

The projects were inserted into the National Expenditure Program (NEP), bicameral conference reports and the General Appropriations Act.

Bernardo, who purportedly facilitated Alcantara's appointment as district engineer of Bulacan in 2019, allegedly funneled billions in infrastructure allocations to Bulacan's first district.

Alcantara claimed that projects were approved in exchange for a 20 to 30 percent "proponent's share," referring to the kickbacks senators and congressmen allegedly asked for in return for pushing for funding for flood control projects.

In 2022, Alcantara said a total of P350 million was released to the Bulacan first district, 25 percent of which went to lawmakers. The amount was supposed to fund flood control projects along Angat and Balagtas rivers and a drainage in Malolos.

In 2023, Bernardo allegedly released P710 million - P450 million of which was inserted into the NEP and P260 million to the bicam. Lawmakers again got 25 percent of the total funds, supposedly intended for building multiple revetments and slope protections, as well as improvement of waterways in Bulacan.

By 2024, lawmakers had raised their required kickbacks to 30 percent for flood control and retained 25 percent for other projects. A total of P3.3 billion was released for flood control structures in Plaridel, Guiguinto and Malolos as well as several other infrastructure.

For this year, lawmakers got 25 percent of P2.55 billion for large-scale flood control structures, drainage systems, bypass roads and river protection structures across Baliuag, Pandi, Plaridel, Malolos, Guiguinto, and Balagtas.