The Manila Times
THE members of the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division expressed dismay over the testimony of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) National Capital Region Director Gerard Opulencia, saying he did not know how commitments for flood control projects were prepared. “Commitments” are the percentage money received by DPWH district engineers from contractors. Testifying at the bail hearing of former senator Ramon Revilla Jr. and his co-accused at the anti-graft court on Friday, Opulencia said that he was the one who submitted the list of projects for funding to former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo. Opulencia identified to Associate Justice and Division Chairman Karl Miranda four district engineers to whom he gave these lists: Denryl Caesar Cortuna, Manny Bulusan, Ruel Umali, and Arturo Gonzales Jr., whom he alleged prepared the “commitments” for these projects. He claimed to be the one who delivered the list of commitments to the respondents at the Manila Diamond Hotel. When Miranda asked if he had knowledge of how these commitments were implemented, Opulencia said that he had limited knowledge on the matter because his role was only for coordination. Miranda accused Opulencia of “cherry picking his testimony” despite being under conditional immunity. Upon further questioning by Associate Justice Ronald Moreno, Opulencia reiterated that his only duty was to give the project list to Bernardo. He added that he has no knowledge of the flood control projects in Bulacan, which led the justices to question why he was accepted as a state witness in the first place. Opulencia said that he became a state witness after the determination of the Department of Justice that he was involved in the anomaly and was ordered to return P150 million. When asked by Moreno how he got P150 million, Opulencia said that it came from “pasasalamat” or “thank you” money from contractors after completing such projects in his district. He stressed that the money came after the projects were completed. Opulencia said the idea of “project commitments” came from Bernardo, whom he said he owes a lot of gratitude as he was the one who recommended him to be appointed as district engineer and regional director. After Opulencia’s testimony, Revilla told reporters that he is now seeing the truth coming out. Meanwhile, after being indisposed for a few days, Bernardo appeared at the court wearing a face mask. He told the court that he still has bouts of cough but was otherwise well enough to appear before the division. Before the cross-examination, both the prosecution and the defense were debating on whether they would demonstrate how many boxes would fit inside a Toyota 4Runner after his affidavit noted that he was able to fit around six to 15 boxes of money when he was delivering it to the proponent Revilla. He said in his affidavit that he was able to deliver P135 million in 2024 and a total of P375 million in 2025 separated into two tranches. Both the prosecution and the defense stipulated later on being against the demonstration, with the cross-examination of Bernardo’s affidavit being conducted by Revilla counsel Reody Balisi.
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