Witness: Romualdez, Co proponents for P27-B DPWH projects per Cabral's instructions

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Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez and former Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co were identified as proponents of P27 billion worth of projects under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) upon the instructions of the late Undersecretary Catalina Cabral, a prosecution witness said Monday.

Engineer Peter Paul Cortez, chief of the DPWH Programming Division, made the testimony during the bail hearing of Romualdez, who is facing a P7.4 billion plunder case alongside Co, Romualdez’s personal assistant Joselyn Tragua Sereño, and Felicito Cristobal Guevarra, president of Samchan Foreign Exchange Corporation.

Cortez said his division “assumed” that Romualdez and Co were proponents of the P27 billion since their names were given by Cabral to be encoded in the DPWH database.

Cabral died in December 2025 in an apparent fall into a ravine in Benguet.

Asked by Sandiganbayan Third Division Chairperson Justice Karl Miranda as to why he identified Romualdez and Co as the project proponents in his judicial affidavit, Cortez replied “Per record of our database, they are the ones tagged as proponents. Actually, our term there is inserted.”

The P27 billion worth of projects were not proposed by the DPWH under the National Expenditure Program but were part of congressional amendments that made it to the General Appropriations Act.

Cortez said his "best guess" was that the amendments were made at the bicameral conference committee deliberations, the panel which reconciles the House and Senate versions of the proposed budget.

During the cross-examination by Romualdez’s counsel, Atty. Felix Villa, Cortez said he did not talk to the lawmaker or his staff regarding the projects.

Likewise, Cortez said that Cabral’s instructions as to identifying proponents were not documented, and that the database of the DPWH did not indicate commissions.

Romualdez has repeatedly denied his involvement in the alleged kickback scheme in flood control projects. —AOL, GMA News