Alcantara testifies delivering Estrada’s alleged P213M kickbacks to Bernardo

MANILA — Former Public Works Bulacan 1st District Engineer Henry Alcantara testified that he instructed his staff to deliver a total of P213 million in alleged kickbacks to former DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo at the Diamond Hotel in Manila during the 2nd quarter of 2025.

Alcantara took the witness stand on Friday in the bail hearing of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s plunder case over the alleged flood control kickback scheme.

Alcantara claimed P88 million of the total were Estrada’s 25% commitment fees from P355 million worth of projects in the DPWH Bulacan 1st DEO.

“During budget hearing, I was told by Usec. Bernardo [that] there is P355 million funding left for SJE (Estrada). According to him, if I need pondo, submit the list [of projects for Estrada],” Alcantara said.

He added that Bernardo instructed him to include as “pasabay” P125 million in commitments or 25% of the P500 million worth of projects from the DPWH Bulacan 3rd DEO, for which Estrada is also the alleged proponent.

During cross-examination, the defense pointed out that Alcantara only learned that the P125 million was supposedly intended for Estrada after Bernardo informed him.

OVERDESIGNING PROJECTS

Associate Justice Maryann Corpus-Mañalac asked Alcantara how contractors generated funds for commitment fees and if they did so by overpricing construction materials.

Alcantara denied inflating material prices, saying they adhered to a price list. He said they “overdesigned” projects or increased construction material quantities to generate funds for the commitment fees demanded by project proponents.

BID-RIGGING

Another witness, Lenvic Lesigues of the Philippine Competition Commission’s Investigation Division, was asked by the defense how alleged bid-rigging in infrastructure projects could have gone undetected.

The defense questioned how the alleged scheme could have taken place if the bidding process was recorded on the government’s online platform.

Lesigues explained that the commission’s monitoring was limited to information encoded on the platform.

He said he had no knowledge into transactions or arrangements made outside the website.