Arrest warrant out for Bong Revilla over Bulacan ghost flood control project

MANILA, Philippines – The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan issued an arrest warrant for former senator Bong Revilla over a malversation charge related to a flood control project in Bulacan.

Rappler saw a copy of the warrant, which was issued on Monday, January 19, and signed by Sandiganbayan 3rd Division chairperson Associate Justice Karl Miranda.

The warrant states no bail is recommended.

It also covers Revilla’s fellow respondents, including former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) assistant district engineer Brice Hernandez, who has been under Senate custody since September 2025. Hernandez attended the resumption of the Senate inquiry into the flood control scandal on Monday.

The malversation and falsification charges being handled by the 3rd Division are related to a P76.9-million flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan, “which turned out to be a ghost or non-existent project,” says the charge sheet filed by Ombudsman prosecutors.

The charge sheet says it was Revilla who “caused or facilitated the inclusion” of the Pandi project in the 2025 national budget. Revilla allegedly received through then-public works undersecretary Roberto Bernardo “kickbacks, advance commissions, or a percentage of the funds allotted” for the project.

The contractor for the Pandi project is SYMS Construction, whose owner Sally Santos admitted lending her license to engineers of the DPWH’s Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office.

Revilla was detained for four years, from 2014 to 2018, over a plunder charge related to the pork barrel scam. He was acquitted in 2018, and eventually cleared of other related criminal charges. He was subsequently reelected to the Senate in 2019 for another six-year term, but lost in the 2025 polls.

This is his second time facing a non-bailable corruption charge. – Rappler.com