2 Philippine senators implicated in flood control corruption inquiry but deny allegations

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Two Philippine senators were implicated Tuesday in a massive corruption scandal involving flood-control projects that is being investigated by Congress and the government and has sparked outrage in a Southeast Asian nation prone to deadly storms and flooding.

Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva strongly denied the allegations made by Brice Ericson Hernandez, a former engineer of the Department of Public Works and Highways, who testified under oath in a nationally televised House of Representatives committee on infrastructure inquiry.

In a separate Senate inquiry on Monday, two construction company owners identified at least 17 House legislators who allegedly demanded and received huge kickbacks from them.

The corruption scandal led to the resignation of the public works secretary.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has said he would form an independent commission to carry out an investigation into the widespread anomalies he described as “horrible” and prompted him to withhold fundings for flood control projects next year.

There have been relatively small but boisterous pockets of protests, mostly by activists. On Friday, more than 150 former cabinet members, Catholic church leaders, retired generals, business executives and anti-corruption watchdogs expressed outrage in a joint statement over “the multi-billion-peso flood control scandal that has harmed and killed our fellow Filipinos in a climate crisis that brings our country even deadlier storms.”

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who leads the country’s disaster-response agency, backed the investigations.

During questioning by House legislators, Hernandez expressed fears about his safety but said Estrada allegedly received a 30% kickback from 355 million pesos ($6.2 million) worth of flood control projects while Villanueva allegedly got 30% from 600 million pesos ($10.5 million) worth of such projects in 2023 in Bulacan, a flood-prone province north of Manila.

The kickbacks allegedly were delivered by government drivers, Hernandez said without providing other details or offering any evidence.

Estrada angrily dismissed the allegations as a “big lie” and challenged Hernandez to take a lie-detector test with him in public.

“I’m ready to prove that his allegations were all lies,” Estrada said in a news conference.

Hernandez may have wanted to retaliate after Estrada cited him for contempt in a Senate inquiry on Monday for refusing to answer questions about the ex-government engineer’s gambling habits.

Villanueva denied the allegations in a speech before the Senate and said he has evidence to prove his innocence.

“I will never ever destroy the name that was given to me by my parents because it is priceless,” said Villanueva, the son of a Christian evangelist and civil rights advocate.

The Philippines has spent an estimated 545 billion pesos ($9.6 billion) for thousands of flood mitigation projects in the last three years. The projects were under government review to determine which ones are substandard or non-existent as Marcos said he has found during inspections he led in flood-prone provinces in recent weeks.

A website the president launched to encourage the public to report anomalies has been swamped by thousands of complaints.

The Philippines is lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. In July, back-to-back typhoons and seasonal monsoon downpours set off massive floods that affected millions of people, displaced more than 300,000 others and left extensive infrastructure and agricultural losses. Dozens died in the onslaught, mostly poor villagers, including in flash floods.