Envoy: Bonoan sought DOJ's approval for extended travel stay in U.S.

Former Public Works and Highways Secretary Manuel Bonoan remains in California, United States, and requested the Philippine government to allow him to extend his stay there until mid-February, Philippine Ambassador to the US Babe Romualdez confirmed Friday. 

“His reason for being here is because his wife is due for an eye operation, and it has been moved to February,” Romualdez said in a radio interview.

Bonoan, who is a subject of an Immigration Lookout Bulletin over ghost and substandard flood control projects under his watch, left the Philippines for the US on 11 November, allegedly to escort his wife, who will undergo a medical procedure. He was supposed to return on 17 December based on the data from the Bureau of Immigration.

Key officials, particularly Ombudsman Boying Remulla—tasked with investigating the corruption scheme in flood control projects alongside the Independent Commission for Infrastructure—called for Bonoan’s deportation due to possible overstaying. 

Romualdez, however, said Bonoan’s visa is still valid and that he may be granted an extension of up to six months by the US Department, especially if he invokes medical reasons.

“I’m pretty sure that former secretary Bonoan is not overstaying… I think he has requested for an extension of his stay here in the United States from our Department of Justice until the middle of February,” he stated. 

Romualdez mentioned that he personally obtained the information from no less than the DPWH secretary through a phone call. 

The envoy said he reached out to Bonoan following a marcher order from the Philippine government to find his whereabouts in the US. 

Bonoan resigned as chief of the scandal-ridden DPWH on 31 August at the onset of the investigation into the multi-billion-peso flood control scam. He was succeeded by former Transportation secretary Vince Dizon. 

Bonoan has been linked to private contractors doing business with the government. Bonoan’s daughter, Fatima Gay Bonoan de la Cruz, is reportedly an executive of MBB Global Properties—a firm linked to the alleged ghost and anomalous flood-control projects.