MANILA — Akbayan Partylist Representative Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno on Sunday called for a thorough audit of projects handled by contractors under the Witness Protection Program (WPP) to determine how much public money was misused.

Diokno made the remarks on Super Radyo dzBB as the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that four individuals were accepted into the WPP in connection with alleged anomalous flood control projects. The four include former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, ex-DPWH Bulacan District Engineer Henry Alcantara, DPWH engineer Gerard Opulencia, and contractor Sally Santos, owner and manager of SYMS Construction Trading.

“Dapat nagkaroon ng malalim na audit sa lahat ng mga hinawakan na mga kontrata at proyekto ng mga pumasok sa witness protection program,” Diokno said. (A thorough audit should have been conducted on all contracts and projects handled by those who entered the Witness Protection Program.)

He added, “Dapat nung una pa lamang nakuha na sa kanila ‘yung mga electronic device kasi dun natin makikita yung mga konchaba nila, and yung proyektong minagic nila.” (Their electronic devices should have been seized in the first place since these would reveal their accomplices and the projects they manipulated.)

Alcantara, Opulencia, and Santos have recently returned millions of pesos of stolen public funds.

However, Diokno stressed that a formal forfeiture proceeding must be implemented to ensure all those accountable for the anomalous flood control projects return the full amount of funds they took.

“Kapag sinabi full cooperation, dapat lahat ng alam nila sa mga flood control projects at iba pag infra project dapat ilalabas nila at ibubulgar nila, itetstigo nila. They cannot spare anybody. Basta nasa personal knowledge nila kung sinong involved then kelangan asabihn nila ng buo sa DOJ, later sa korte,” he said. (When full cooperation is required, they must disclose and expose everything they know about flood control projects and other infrastructure projects, and testify about it. They cannot spare anybody. Anyone who was involved must be fully named and disclosed to the DOJ, and later in court.)