SEN. Rodante Marcoleta yesterday said the courts, not the Senate, should be allowed to decide on the bid of contractors Sarah and Curlee Discaya to turn state witnesses relating to their testimony that they paid kickbacks to members of the House of Representatives and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials to corner government contracts.
At the same time, Marcoleta maintained that the sworn affidavit of the Discaya couple that was submitted to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on anomalous flood control projects was voluntary and complete.
Marcoleta said that the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee is not in a position to determine whether resource persons are telling the truth or not as it is best to leave this to the courts to determine.
He made the remark after Senate President Vicente Sotto III said that the couple’s sworn affidavit looked edited.
“How can the Senate President say this? What is his basis for doing this? This is a serious charge. Who edited that sworn statement? Is he referring to me?” Marcoleta said in mixed Filipino and English in a press conference.
Sotto, during yesterday’s session, said he was not alluding to anyone when he said that the Discayas’ sworn affidavit looks edited.
He said his basis for saying that the sworn statement was edited since the couple was not telling all, and that they apparently failed to state their contracts from 2016 to 2022, as they only mentioned contracts they were awarded from 2022 to 2025.
Marcoleta said he is not pushing for the inclusion of the Discayas under the Witness Protection Program of the Department of Justice (DOJ), saying that he only made the motion for the safety of the couple after protesters gathered in front of their house.
As the former Blue Ribbon Committee chairman, Marcoleta said he deemed it proper to recommend the couple’s inclusion in the WPP since their lives are clearly in danger.
He also reiterated that he talked with Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, who said that the Discayas can be given immunity, but later on heard that the DOJ secretary has given the condition that they return the money that they earned from the flood control projects.
Marcoleta said that the condition is not required under RA 6981, or the Witness Protection, Security, and Benefit Act, saying that if the return of money is required, it will raise questions of who would pay up and how the government would determine the amount to be returned.
Marcoleta, who rose on a question of privilege during yesterday’s plenary session, said that as the then chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee, he encouraged resource persons to identify the lawmakers and public works officials involved in anomalous flood control projects and they will be given immunity from suit, but can be held liable for civil damages only.
Remulla denied Marcoleta’s claim that he agreed to turn the Discayas as state witnesses.
“I hope he (Marcoleta) has a recording of our conversation so you can all know what we discussed,”Remulla told reporters when asked to comment on Marcoleta’s remarks that he will confront him for changing his stance on the issue.
“I cannot say I promised something I cannot deliver,” he added.
He said that even if he is the DOJ chief he cannot just create or say that a particular individual can become a state witness without first undergoing a process of evaluation.
Dismissed Bulacan 1st District engineer Brice Ericson Hernandez was brought back to the Senate detention facility yesterday morning.
In a statement, Sotto said he approved the request of Hernandez’s lawyers that he be returned to the Senate from the Pasay City Jail.
He said the request was contained in a letter which he received Monday morning, which stated: “To allow Brice Hernandez to remain within the Senate is to affirm that the institution does not turn away from difficult truths, nor cast aside those who risk their safety to speak them.” – With Ashzel Hachero
Hernandez was cited in contempt during a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing last Monday for allegedly consistently lying before senators.
He was transferred to the PNP Custodial Center, and later on to the Pasay City Jail, after he claimed before the House Infrastructure Committee that Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva allegedly got 30 percent kickbacks from flood control projects in Bulacan in 2025 and 2023, respectively.
Estrada and Villanueva have denied the allegations.
