(UPDATE) MANILA, PHILIPPINES — A former district engineer from Bulacan linked two senators to the flood control mess at the resumption of the investigation by the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Quoting his boss District Engineer Henry Alcantara, former assistant district engineer Brice Hernandez said Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva demanded "30 percent" and was "delivered when these items came out in the GAA (General Appropriations Act).
Alcantara denied Hernandez's allegations.
In response, Estrada, in Filipino and English, denied the claims and challenged him to take a lie detector test so that everyone would know who was telling the truth." "Talk is cheap. I am ready to prove that all that he said against me were pure lies," he added in a text message.
Sen. Joel Villanueva said he was "surprised when someone dragged my name into the flood control projects in our beloved province of Bulacan."
"I have never been involved in a flood control project," said Villanueva whom, Hernandez alleged received 30 percent in kickbacks from 600 million worth of projects in Bulacan.
Hernandez was at the House after Senate President Tito Sotto III allowed him to attend the parallel probe on flood control projects.

Sotto granted the request of the House for Hernandez to attend its public hearing, recognizing the principle of inter-parliamentary courtesy., This news data comes from:http://ybn-xlxe-rq-mnqj.gyglfs.com
Hernandez was detained at the Senate on Monday after the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee cited him in contempt for repeatedly denying his alleged casino habits.
Estrada, Villanueva tagged in House flood control mess, says SOP was '30%'
- Trump tells Europe to put economic pressure on China over Ukraine
- Searchers retrieve bodies as Afghan quake toll seen to rise
- Trump withdraws Kamala Harris's Secret Service protection
- House suspends DPWH budget deliberations pending submission of changes by agency, DBM
- Marcos sacks PNP Chief Torre, saying it was 'difficult but necessary'
- House bill seeks to regulate AI use
- Sotto willing to testify in Senate probe of flood control anomalies if summoned
- Thailand's Parliament to vote Friday for a new prime minister
- Modi and Putin affirm special relationship as India faces steep US tariffs over Russian oil imports
- Alex Eala targets US Open Round of 32 in rematch against Spanish rival