Infra kickbacks rose from 20 to 25 percent under Romualdez – Alcantara

State witness and former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) District Engineer Henry Alcantara said Tuesday that kickbacks for infrastructure projects jumped from 20 to 25 percent in 2022, when congressman Martin Romualdez became House Speaker.

Alcantara made the claim during his testimony in the bail hearing of Romualdez at the Sandiganbayan Third Division for the latter’s pending case of plunder concerning his alleged receipt of P7.4-billion in infrastructure kickbacks from 2022 to 2025.

Prior to the assertion, the witness would note that kickback percentages were determined by former congressman Zaldy Co–one of the accused in the case.

Co had reportedly told him that the “commitment fee” for projects to be included in the national budget was 20 percent, a figure that he admittedly said was high.

The witness likewise stated that there was no reasoning that was provided to them when the percentages were later raised to 25 percent.

Alcantara said that the amount used for commitment fees comes from contractors, as it was a form of assurance on their part that they would be granted the contract for the particular government project.

With such an exchange seemingly favoring the DPWH more than the contractor given the money that was involved, Associate Justice Karl Miranda asked the witness what incentive and guarantee contractors would get that their “advances” would be recouped.

Alcantara answered that it was simply a matter of “trust” in a scheme that he later mentioned had begun even before he was assigned to the Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office.

“That is customary and the system…as a matter of trust, I believe that it is a risk on their part to get the project, it’s a risk and trust, your Honor,” he explained.

Another way that was supposedly used to ensure that contractors would receive the projects was through rigging the bidding process that was undertaken for government projects.

Alcantara stated that there was a coordinator which communicates with contractors regarding which company would be awarded the contract because of the advance that was paid.

As for the matter deliveries of commitments to Co, the witness said that a partial payment would be turned over to the former congressman if the projects that they sought to be inserted into the national budget appeared in the National Expenditure Program.

Only after the projects were included in the passed General Appropriations Act would the full commitment fee be handed over. Alcantara would note that a similar practice was observed in his deliveries to former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo.

Contractors, on the other hand, receive their share of the scheme when the budget for the projects were distributed from the Department of Budget and Management to the DPWH.

Alcantara would note that he had never encountered an instance where funding for a particular project wherein a contractor paid for a commitment was not released.

Kickback scheme existed before Romualdez became House Speaker

Later in the proceedings, the witness was asked by Associate Justice Ronald Moreno regarding the inventor of the infrastructure kickback scheme.

There, Alcantara explained that even before he was appointed as a District Engineer in 2019, back in the time that he was still a private engineer, the practice of getting commitment fees was already existing.

He maintained that he was not necessarily aware of who invented such a scheme under the DPWH.

It is worth noting that during the cross examination of Romualdez’s lawyers, Alcantara affirmed that he had never implicated nor mentioned the name of the former House Speaker in all of his appearances during legislative inquiry into the flood control scheme.