SENATORS belonging to the minority bloc on Tuesday criticized the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee for failing to advance the investigation into the flood control scam at Monday’s hearing.
Senators Imee Marcos and Rodante Marcoleta said the hearing tackled less important issues, such as incorrect grid coordinates, instead of focusing on the substance of witness testimonies.
Marcoleta lamented that key figures earlier implicated by former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary Roberto Bernardo — including former DPWH undersecretary Trygve Olaivar and businessman Maynard Ngu — were present at the hearing but were not meaningfully questioned.
He said that Bernardo had previously linked the two to the implementation of allegedly anomalous flood control projects, but his claims were not revisited during the session.
“We were expecting the hearing to move forward and clarify who was really responsible, but that did not happen,” Marcoleta said in a press briefing.
Marcos questioned the direction of the hearing after two female witnesses were presented to testify on the alleged purchase of a property in South Forbes Park, Makati, reportedly linked to former House speaker Martin Romualdez.
She said the testimony failed to establish clear findings, as the discussion focused largely on identifying businessman Pacifico “Curlee” Discaya as the contractor the witnesses claimed to have dealt with, rather than on the alleged property transaction itself.
She added that the hearing did not sufficiently examine critical details such as the ownership history of the property, the identity of the former owner and tenant, and the authenticity of documents related to the purchase of the house and lot.
“If we are going to ask questions, we should also be looking at the former owner, the former renter, and the documents covering the purchase of the property,” Marcos said.
The two senators stressed that the Blue Ribbon Committee should refocus its inquiry on gathering concrete evidence and directly questioning those previously implicated.
