By Benjamin Cuaresma
MANILA — Senator Robinhood Padilla has pushed back against testimony linking him and Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go to priority project lists submitted to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), calling it “ironic” that the two senators he described as less privileged were among those named in the ongoing investigation into the agency’s controversial funding system.
Padilla said the testimony of former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan should not be taken as proof that he and Go received millions in actual government releases.
“It’s very ironic. The two less privileged senators were the ones named,” Padilla said in a social media post, adding that they had been “left begging for funds” because they belonged to the opposition.
His remarks came after Bonoan testified before the Sandiganbayan Third Division that former DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo had submitted priority project lists attributed to Padilla and Go.
The lists were reportedly coursed through the DPWH’s so-called “leadership fund,” a system Bonoan earlier described as providing senators with substantial allocations for priority infrastructure projects.
But Padilla sought to draw a sharp line between project requests appearing on a list and money actually being released.
According to the senator, several projects attributed to him and Go were marked “FLR,” or “For Later Release,” meaning funds had not been made available.
“It has been two years for me and three for Senator Bong Go that our projects were marked FLR or for later release, no funds,” Padilla said.
That claim could become crucial as the Sandiganbayan examines how lawmakers’ project requests moved through the DPWH and whether the lists represented actual congressional allocations, mere requests, or projects that ultimately received government funding.
Bonoan testified that Bernardo had submitted not only the project lists of Padilla and Go but also those of former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Senator Jinggoy Estrada.
Asked whether other senators had coursed their requests through Bernardo, Bonoan identified Padilla and Go.
The former DPWH chief also testified that all senators in 2024 had at least P500 million in allocations for priority projects under what the agency called “leadership funds,” while chairpersons of major Senate committees could have at least P1 billion.
That revelation has placed the DPWH funding mechanism under heightened scrutiny, particularly over how senators’ preferred projects were identified, endorsed, funded and eventually implemented.
Bonoan’s testimony was presented in connection with the prosecution’s case against Revilla.
For Padilla, however, the appearance of his name on a DPWH project list does not end the inquiry—it raises another question:
Were the projects actually funded and released, or were they simply requests sitting on paper?
That distinction could prove decisive as the court continues to unravel how the DPWH’s massive infrastructure allocations were distributed and whether the so-called leadership funds were legitimate mechanisms for public projects—or a pipeline for political discretion.
The testimony has put another uncomfortable spotlight on the system: Who requested the projects, who approved them, who controlled the money—and, ultimately, where did the funds go?
ia/xf
