Sandiganbayan orders DPWH to disclose lawmaker proponents in Revilla flood control trial

₱92.8 million in public funds tied to a flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan that the DPWH has testified was never built. Former senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. and officials of the DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office are on trial before the Sandiganbayan's Third Division for malversation and graft over the project, in proceedings that opened in May 2026. At a hearing on May 19, 2026, the court ordered DPWH Programming Section chief Gerard Longoria to produce all records of requests for project funding and proposed budget amendments, limited to the names of the lawmakers who acted as project proponents. The prosecution asked that the documents be placed under seal, which the court allowed. Longoria testified that the names of project proponents reached his office through instructions from the late DPWH Undersecretary Catalina Cabral, and that he prepared multiple amendments to budget lists that were submitted to the House of Representatives. He said budget errata insertions of this kind had happened 10 to 20 times before. Revilla and his co-accused have denied the charges and contested the case through bail proceedings earlier in 2026. At a follow-up hearing on May 20, 2026, the DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office's quality assurance section chief, Ferdinand Vergara Jr., testified that the project's payment papers moved without a construction materials testing report attached. Under DPWH Department Order 11, that test report must accompany a project's progress report before payment is authorized. "Wala pong naka-attach na test result," Vergara told the Third Division, saying the engineers who signed off should have secured the report first. The project engineer and materials engineer who certified the disbursement, Arjay Domasig and Emelita Juat, are among Revilla's co-accused in the malversation case.