Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson on Sunday, 21 September, assured the public that all documents retrieved from former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Bulacan Assistant District Engineer Brice Hernandez will undergo proper procedures to preserve the chain of custody.

In a radio interview, Lacson disclosed that Hernandez returned with items including documents and a computer after he was allowed to leave the Senate premises on Saturday, 20 September, to gather evidence supporting his allegations of payoffs and kickbacks.

"These items are sealed for now. We will follow a procedure to preserve a chain of custody," he said in Filipino.

"We need to preserve the chain of custody so that if the evidence is vital to a case, it will not be compromised," he added.

Lacson said if the evidence includes proof of kickbacks or commissions, he will immediately send them to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) for investigation and prosecution.

In a House tri-committee hearing, Hernandez tagged Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva as among those who allegedly benefited from anomalous flood control projects across the country.

The next hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee is set on Tuesday, 22 Sept.

Ex-DPWH officials to be invited

Lacson said that due to "new developments," former DPWH officials will also be invited to the hearing.

The senator noted that resigned DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan and retired Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo may be among those summoned, as they "have much to explain" in the next hearings of the Blue Ribbon Committee.

He pointed out that Bernardo appeared in a photo with the so-called "BGC Boys," a group of engineers implicated in corruption tied to substandard and ghost projects in Bulacan’s first engineering district.

The BGC Boys, which included Hernandez, allegedly squandered hundreds of millions of pesos in taxpayers’ money in casinos.

Lacson said Bernardo was responsible for the appointments of Henry Alcantara and Hernandez to the Bulacan First DEO, noting that the photo was taken at the house of Loren Cruz, described as Alcantara’s bagman.

"What was Bernardo doing in that gathering with the BGC Boys? He has some explaining to do," Lacson said.

As for Bonoan, Lacson said he is the appointing authority and may need to shed light on how more than P600 million in cash deliveries were allegedly made by Syms Construction owner Sally Santos to the First District Engineering Office this year.