Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson has linked recently resigned public works secretary Manuel Bonoan to a government contractor of multibillion-peso flood control projects in Bulacan, a province that, he said, “has proven to be the national sewer of corrupted flood control projects.”

Delivering on Tuesday the second part of his privilege speech titled “Flooded Gates of Hell,” Lacson not only showed Bonoan’s ties to the contractor but also detailed how a gang of five officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Bulacan “maneuvered and manipulated” procedures to steal billions of pesos in flood control projects in the province and then unabashedly squandered the money in casinos.

Speaking in a mix of Filipino and English, he said senators share the people’s anger at the various personalities who have been helping themselves to taxpayer money. He said the “unified cry” is: “Those involved should be held accountable, jailed. Our frustrated countrymen cry in unison. ‘Name, shame, and prosecute.’”

He added: “It is but right and just that we all demand that heads must roll and those responsible must be put behind bars, whichever agency or office—even those in high towers of power—they may come from.

“Justice must catch up with these people because enough is enough.”

Globalcrete Builders

One of the Bulacan-based government contractors whose records Lacson and his team checked was Globalcrete Builders, which snagged ₱2.195-billion flood control projects from 2018 to 2024.

The company is owned by Candaba Mayor Rene Maglanque, who sat as its president in 2024 and who secured government contracts that he himself signed when he should have divested from it, Lacson said.

Maglanque owns MBB Global Properties, the owner of Wyndham Garden Hotel in Clark, Pampanga, which cost almost half a billion pesos to put up, the senator said.

Lacson said the company’s general information sheet in 2024 named Macy Monique Maglanque as its president, Sunshine M. Bernardo as corporate secretary, and Fatima Gay Bonoan dela Cruz as treasurer.

“I repeat: Maglanque, Bernardo, Bonoan—MBB. Coincidentally, these are the known surnames of today’s flood control saga,” he said, pointing out that they stand for Candaba Mayor Maglanque, former public works undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, and former public works secretary Bonoan.

“I leave it to you to connect the dots,” he said, adding that Macy, Sunshine and Fatima—the officials of MBB Global Properties—are the children of the three officials he mentioned.

“This explains the constant defense of former DPWH Secretary Bonoan—that what President Bongbong Marcos inspected as a ‘ghost’ project in Bulacan was just an isolated case,” he said. “Bonoan may not want Globalcrete to be unearthed in an investigation.” 

‘BGC Boys’

The senator went into the specifics of the five officials of the DPWH engineering office in Bulacan’s first district, whom he dubbed the “BGC Boys” (for Bulacan Group of Contractors). He said this is their moniker “known to casino employees.”

Because government officials are barred from entering casinos, the five DPWH officials used aliases with valid identification cards, like driver’s licenses issued by the Land Transportation Office, Lacson said.

He said Henry Alcantara, the newly dismissed DPWH OIC assistant regional director, used the alias Joseph Castro Villegas; OIC district engineer Brice Ericson G. Hernandez, the alias Marvin Santos de Guzman; assistant district engineer Jaypee D. Mendoza, the alias Peejay Castro Asuncion; and engineer Arjay Domasig, who introduced himself as a contractor from SYMS Trading Corp, the alias Sandro Bernardo Park. He said Edrick San Diego came as himself.

Lacson said the five officials incurred casino losses of as much as ₱950 million based on documents of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., which in turn culled the figure from 13 casinos in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Pampanga.

He quoted their individual casino losses thus: Hernandez, ₱435 million; Mendoza, ₱418 million; Alcantara, ₱36.7 million; Domasig, ₱16.9 million; and San Diego, ₱42.4 million.

He then questioned the big casino wins amounting to over half a billion pesos that the five made at the Newport World Resorts in Pasay City from Aug. 31, 2023, to April 4, 2024.

“Did they all become lucky when they all won? Or is there a money laundering scheme here?” Lacson said, adding that he and his team are validating reports that the group had faked reports of winning. 

“How so?” he said. “They would change their cash into chips, but if they lost a little, they would go to the cashier to cash out and declare winnings from the chips they changed. Smart? Your guess, at this point, is as good as mine.” 

Lacson disclosed that some of the BGC Boys were still playing in casinos last month and squandering the people’s money, even if the President had already found out about ghost and substandard flood control projects in Bulacan.

He said Hernandez, for one, was visiting casinos on Sept. 1 when the Senate blue ribbon committee was already investigating the controversial flood control projects.

Maycapiz-Taliptip River project

Lacson said he and his team have found out “how deeply entrenched corruption has become in the BGC Kingdom,” and that the patterns showed “a framework of rigged/questionable biddings, impossible timelines of completion, manipulated progress reports, and falsified public documents.”

Citing the case of the Maycapiz-Taliptip River project in Barangay Perez, Bulakan, Bulacan, he said the project “may be added to the Wonders of the World” given that it would “keep us wondering how in the world it was implemented at such an extraordinary speed—and paid in extraordinary haste.”

He said the project, which costs ₱92.58 million for package B, was awarded to SYMS Construction on Dec. 17, 2024. The next day, SYMS was granted a notice to proceed.

Just two days later, or on Dec. 20, 2024, SYMS sought payment for a 46.05% completion rate worth ₱42.63 million on its first progress billing. Then, on Dec. 27, 2024, SYMS received ₱35.97 million after taxes.

Three months later, or on March 14, 2025, he said, SYMS sought payment for the 89.10% completion rate of the project, based on the second progress billing. It was paid after five days.

Lacson presented slides of the 46% and 89% completion rates of the project, pointing out that “only one picture was used and submitted for the two progress billings of SYMS.”

What was more irksome, he said, was that SYMS’ third and final payment of ₱14 million was ₱3.9 million more than the original contract price.

“But lo and behold, it was approved,” he said. “The monthly certificate of payment for the statement of work of SYMS was certified, checked and reviewed by the BGC Boys, who are project engineers Domasig and Mendoza, including the ₱3.9 million in revised contract.” 

He also said his team had found out that packages A and B of the project were the same, being in the same location.

“It looks like we were put on a double whammy by SYMS Construction and their cohorts in DPWH,” he said, noting that package B is a ghost project.

He said the company should be taken to court and not only blacklisted forever.

Criminal charges

The senator said that given these findings, the DPWH should file criminal charges against SYMS, including multiple violations of Article 217 in relation to Articles 48 and 171 of the Revised Penal Code, or malversation through falsification of public documents. 

He sought prosecution for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act Section 3(e), causing undue injury to the government or giving a private party unwarranted benefits, advantage, or preference through manifest partiality, evident bad faith, or gross inexcusable negligence, and Section 3(g), entering on behalf of the government into contracts manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to it, and Section 8 in relation to unexplained wealth. 

He also endorsed the filing of plunder charges, given that billions of pesos lost in ghost projects were squandered in casinos. As well, he urged the Anti-Money Laundering Council to freeze the bank accounts of the concerned officials. 

“Our goal is not only punitive, but also preventive. We do it through reforms in our legislation,” Lacson said, adding:

“In my first privilege speech, I spoke about the flooded gates of corruption. Today, we turned our sights on a darker place—the flooded gates of hell. There, we can find those who rob the Filipino people, drowning not in flood waters but in sins and moral decay. We hope that they drown in the cases they would face.”