Bulacan’s former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Assistant District Engineer Brice Hernandez retracted his lawyer’s earlier claim that six senators were involved in the controversial multi-billion-peso flood control scam.

At the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on anomalous flood control projects, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III expressed concern over what he perceived as “one-sided nature of the allegations,” pointing out that only senators were being implicated in the corruption scandal.

“Puro mga senador ang binabaril. Bakit ba? Ano ba…I have to clarify kasi sari ng abogado meron anim na senador kang babangitin. Ano ba ‘yon? (Only senators are being shot down. Why is that? I have to clarify because your lawyer said you would name six senators. What’s that about?),” Sotto asked Hernandez.

In response, Hernandez denied the claim and clarified that the data recovered from his computer pointed not to senators, but to members of the House of Representatives.

“Your honor, ang banggit lang po niya siguro kung ano yung laman ng computer ko. Actually, mga congressman po yung andun. Hindi po mga senador ang laman ng computer ko (Your honor, I think what he referred to was what’s in my computer. Actually, it’s congressmen who are listed there, not senators),” he told Sotto.

Sotto pressed further for clarity.

"So fake news ’yun ah? May sinabi na senator na pinangalanan mo raw. Mga congressman yung nasa computer mo? (So that’s fake news? There were reports that you named senators. It’s actually congressmen in your computer?),” the Senate chief asked, to which Hernandez firmly responded.

“Yes. Yung nasa computer ko po, mga congressman po (Yes. The ones in my computer are congressmen)."