Witness: No Romualdez in Alcantara project proponent lists

The name of former House Speaker Martin Romualdez did not appear in the consolidated project proponent lists of former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) District Engineer Henry Alcantara, a witness said.

The testimony came from DPWH engineer Carlo Rivera, who also served at the Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office, as he was called to testify in the ongoing bail hearing of Romualdez for the case of plunder.

Rivera said that Alcantara had tasked him to conduct deliveries of “commitments” and the placing of project proponents in the public works agency’s database.

Similar to previous testimony of other prosecution witnesses, he explained that commitments were advance payments that the DPWH received from contractors to ensure that they would be awarded with a particular government project.

Rivera explained that he would deliver the commitment fees to Alcantara, who would then plot deliveries to either former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo or former congressman Zaldy Co.

In one such delivery, the witness said that he had brought a collective amount of P5-billion to Alcantara consisting of contractor advances before handing over the same to Co who was concerned with distributing the amounts to project proponents.

Contacted contractors for commitments

Aside from conducting deliveries and inputting proponent lists, Rivera stated another task that he had was to contact contractors to ask them regarding their commitment fees.

He said that he had contact information of several contractors within Bulacan, namely Topnotch Catalyst Builders, ARL Builders, Wawao Builders, IM Construction Corporation, and SYMS Construction Trading.

Rivera disclosed that his contact for SYMS Construction was former DPWH Bulacan 1st District Assistant Engineer Brice Hernandez.

During a hearing at the Sandiganbayan Third Division, SYMS owner Sally Santos said that she had lent her license to Hernandez, reportedly securing P1.8 billion in infrastructure contracts.

Santos would note that she received a form of a “royalty” from the arrangement of three percent.

Romualdez’s bail hearing is set to resume on 29 October, with prosecutors set to call Bernardo as their witness in the proceedings.