Bonoan: ‘All senators’ got share of ‘leadership fund’

MANILA, Philippines, August 13 ------ Former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan told the Sandiganbayan on Wednesday that “all senators” in the previous Congress availed themselves of at least P500 million each from the “leadership fund” allotted by his agency under its 2025 budget.

Bonoan’s revelation marked his first appearance on the stand as a prosecution witness in a malversation case over an allegedly anomalous flood control project, with former Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. among the accused. The ex-Cabinet official is facing graft and plunder charges along with incumbent Sen. Jinggoy Estrada in a separate case involving public works funds. 

In his testimony on Wednesday, Bonoan said that on top of the P500-million allocation for the “priority projects” of each senator, the chairpersons of major committees, including the Senate panel on public works, could have at least P1 billion. “For fiscal year 2025, according to records, all senators availed the leadership fund,” he said in reply to a question from Associate Justice Ronald Moreno. The witness described the leadership funds as allocations within the national budget intended to accommodate the senators’ pet projects under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

According to Bonoan, he discussed the parameters of the funds with Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, the Senate President at the time. “The fund will be under the discretion of the Senate president but there [were] thresholds we have agreed on,” he said. 

In his judicial affidavit, Bonoan said P24 billion in total was allocated for senators, but that the amount was subject to Zubiri’s discretion.

‘Nothing wrong’

When asked by Moreno if it is wrong for a senator to ask the DPWH for funding of their priority projects, Bonoan said: “There is nothing wrong.” 

Zubiri on Wednesday denied Bonoan’s claims that he handled any list of projects, but also said there was nothing wrong with “institutional amendments” as long as they were disbursed and implemented properly. “As Senate President, I never requested, held or handled any list of project requests from senators. I refused to handle any such list. No proposed budget amendments have come through our office,” Zubiri said in a statement. “All requests were coursed through the Senate committee on finance, which oversees the budget process in the Senate,” he added.

Zubiri nonetheless pointed out that there is nothing wrong with institutional amendments or “insertions” to the budget for as long as the projects are implemented without corruption and free of personal interests.

“Almost all legislators, from senators to members of the House of Representatives, introduce amendments to the budget … That is part of our responsibility as legislators: to help bring much-needed development to communities that have long been left behind,” the senator said. “I reiterate that there is nothing wrong with institutional amendments, for as long as projects are properly implemented, that they are neither ghost projects nor substandard projects, and that they are devoid of any influence from the proponent legislators that could lead to corruption,” he said.

No direct contact

Bonoan appeared as a prosecution witness against Revilla in a case involving an alleged “ghost” flood control project in Bulacan worth P92.8 million. Revilla was allowed to post bail at P1 million on July 31. The former DPWH official has been under hospital arrest at the Philippine National Police General Hospital due to a host of ailments. He earlier offered himself as a state witness in the multibillion-billion-peso corruption cases arising from questionable public works projects.

The Office of the Ombudsman accepted the offer, but the Sandiganbayan junked the prosecutors’ motion to amend the case information that could have discharged him from the case. Despite being a cooperating witness, he remains co-accused in the plunder and graft case against Estrada.

In his testimony, Bonoan, in response to questions from Associate Justice Karl Miranda, said Revilla “also availed of the leadership fund for fiscal year 2024 to 2025.” Revilla chaired the Senate committee on public works in the 19th Congress. Bonoan said Revilla submitted his list of priority projects under the leadership funds through Roberto Bernardo, the former public works undersecretary for operations. Bonoan said he was never approached by the senators directly but only through their staff members or DPWH officials like Bernardo.

Lacson not part

Asked by Moreno if Sen. Panfilo Lacson was among the senators who had availed the fund, Bonoan pointed out that Lacson was not an incumbent senator when the allocation was being prepared in 2024. Bonoan said the DPWH came up with the leadership fund only in 2024. 

“The leadership fund came about due to the numerous cuts we observed in 2023,” he said, referring to the final DPWH budget under the General Appropriations Act (GAA). “When it came up in the GAA, to our surprise and dismay, the core programs of the department were reduced drastically,” Bonoan said. “To avoid this repetition of cuts being made, we thought that it would be better if [it] would [be] include [in] the priority projects of the Senate.”

He said it was up to Maria Catalina “Cathy” Cabral, the now-deceased public works undersecretary for planning, to determine if requests for funding were in line with the agency’s priorities. Cabral died in what authorities ruled as a suicide in December last year at the height of congressional inquiries into DPWH flood control projects. Once the proposed projects were found consistent with the DPWH objectives, Bonoan said, Cabral would put them under the leadership fund submitted by the agency to the Department of Budget and Management, which would then include them in the National Expenditure Program. Last April, Lacson called for the abolition of the leadership funds, calling them a new form of pork barrel.

Go, Padilla projects

In a written testimony, which Miranda also cited in court, Bonoan said Revilla and Estrada submitted their lists of projects tapping the 2025 leadership fund by coursing them through Bernardo. “Your honor, it has always been [like] that. I know very well that Bernardo is very close to Revilla and Estrada,” Bonoan told Miranda.

Asked by Ombudsman Deputy Special Prosecutor Omar Sagadal if there were other senators who took that same route, Bonoan said: “Bernardo also submitted the list of projects for the leadership fund of Sen. Bong Go, Sen. [Robinhood] Padilla.”  In a privilege speech on Wednesday night, Go denied passing any list through Bernardo.

Source: inquirer.net