State witness

According to his medical diagnosis, Manuel Bonoan is one stage away from kidney failure. He also reportedly suffers from prostate cancer, a dislocated spinal disc, high blood pressure with plaque clogging his heart, diabetes melitus, high cholesterol and gouty arthritis.

At 80 years old, the civil engineer who spent most of his adult life in the Department of Public Works and Highways is in critical condition, according to that medical diagnosis.

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla cited this in announcing that his office had decided to drop the plunder charges against Bonoan and instead use him as a state witness in the flood control and budget scandal. The move needs approval by the Sandiganbayan.

Some folks are unmoved by the sight of a wheelchair-bound 80-year-old. Members of the Iglesia Ni Cristo, who gathered at EDSA yesterday, compared the ombudsman’s treatment of Bonoan with the looming indictment and likely arrest for plunder of INC member Sen. Rodante Marcoleta.

Defendants in a criminal case are allowed to turn state witness if they are deemed not to be the most guilty, and their testimony is indispensable in successful prosecution. Remulla wants the nation to believe this is so – on top of all those diagnosed afflictions.

In the peanut gallery, however, the deal that the ombudsman has struck with Bonoan is seen as an accommodation to a former Marcos Cabinet member, who like Martin Romualdez may not be keen on going down all by his lonesome.

Even Marcoleta’s Senate foe Panfilo Lacson questioned the move to accept Bonoan as state witness. A state witness must provide indispensable testimony against someone higher up in the pecking order, Lacson pointed out. How much higher can a public works secretary – an alter ego of the President – go in his testimony?

If Bonoan can pin down Romualdez, however, the state witness deal can be acceptable, Lacson told “Storycon” on One News yesterday. Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano said this would be Bonoan’s role as state witness.

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Bonoan, who now shows up in public in a wheelchair, should understand public skepticism over his health condition. Too many VIP defendants have played the health card (with the wheelchair as the standard prop) to escape regular detention without bail and criminal prosecution.

Once cleared of criminal charges and ordered released, the supposedly seriously ill and age-debilitated VIPs miraculously recover. They become robust enough to seek elective office, over and over, or even serve in the Cabinet, till death parts them from the public payroll.

Until recently, Bonoan was healthy enough to travel to the United States, ostensibly to accompany his wife for an unspecified medical procedure.

Since he has been accepted as a state witness, it means he isn’t deemed to be the most guilty. But who might be considered the most guilty in this institutionalized looting of the national budget and personal enrichment through massive kickbacks?

This systemic thievery seems to have evolved over several budget cycles, and merely hit unprecedented depths of greed and criminal sophistication beginning in the previous administration.

The system enabled the looters to enrich themselves, without centralized direction; each looter is as culpable as the other. So who can be considered to be not the most guilty? Who’s the brains when it’s every person for himself in pocketing dirty money?

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INC members weren’t the only ones with misgivings. Even Lacson told us that in the light of the treatment of Bonoan, the INC has reason to gripe about selective prosecution of their beloved member Marcoleta.

Recalling the Senate testimony of former public works undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, Lacson said Bonoan had control over P5 billion a year in projects from 2023 to 2025, from which he allegedly received a total of P2.25 billion in commissions.

Deducting the shares of other crooks like Bernardo, Lacson said Bonoan should turn over at least P1 billion to the state as restitution before he is allowed to turn state witness.

Retired Supreme Court senior associate justice Antonio Carpio also raised the issue of restitution, as he asked for details on the deal struck by the ombudsman with Bonoan.

Carpio pointed out that under the Witness Protection Act, once Bonoan testifies, “he shall enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution and cannot be subjected to any penalty or forfeiture for any transaction, matter or thing concerning his compelled testimony or books, documents, records and writings produced.”

“Without the agreement to return the malversed amount, Bonoan can keep the public funds after he testifies,” Carpio said.

Pocket P15 billion, return P1 billion? Not a bad deal. In fact, it’s a spectacular deal. We taxpayers are all royally screwed, with the plunderers secure in their loot.