Manuel Bonoan pleads not guilty to graft charges

Former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan pleaded not guilty to graft charges before the Sandiganbayan Second Division. The case involves an alleged conspiracy with Senator Jinggoy Estrada to include flood control projects in the 2025 budget, which reportedly resulted in a P213.7-million kickback.

While Bonoan was recently discharged from separate plunder and graft cases, the court denied a motion by Ombudsman prosecutors to amend the information to discharge him from the current graft case. Following his arraignment, the court proceeded to pretrial proceedings.

In response to Bonoan being dropped from the plunder case, legal counsel for Leyte Representative Ferdinand Martin Romualdez described the move as ‘alarming.’ The lawyer argued that Bonoan has not previously provided testimony or statements linking Romualdez to anomalous infrastructure projects or budget insertions during congressional inquiries or investigations by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure.