A personal aide of former DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo told the Sandiganbayan he delivered 12 sealed boxes to the Cavite compound of former senator Ramon Revilla Jr. in February 2025 — boxes he later learned contained cash linked to anomalous flood control projects.
Vergel Niño Garcia made the disclosure during the bail hearing on the malversation case against Revilla and several officials of the DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office. Garcia said Bernardo personally instructed him to bring the boxes to the Revilla family property, known as the White House Compound.
He told the court he saw Revilla at the compound during the delivery but did not witness the former senator receiving the boxes directly. Garcia said he had no knowledge at the time that the containers held money, and only learned of their contents after the flood control scandal became public.
His testimony backs an earlier claim Bernardo made before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that P250 million was delivered to Revilla in February 2025, weeks before the start of the election campaign period.
Bernardo’s driver, Francisco dela Fuente, separately told the court that he also brought boxes to the same compound — once in 2024, when Revilla was reportedly present, and again in March 2025, when three of Revilla’s aides received the delivery. Bernardo had previously told the Senate he personally delivered P125 million to Revilla’s residence in 2024.
Garcia, who has served as Bernardo’s personal aide for 20 years — hired because their fathers were close friends — also described deliveries to other officials. He said he brought 12 boxes to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada at the Artiaga Building in San Juan in November 2024, with a staff member receiving the items despite Estrada being present in the building.
Three deliveries were made to former education undersecretary Trygve Olaivar across different locations in 2023 and 2024 — suitcases handed over in Rockwell and Magallanes, and boxes at the Delta gate along Airport Road. Garcia said Olaivar received the items personally each time.
Former DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan was also named, with Garcia describing three drop-offs — at Diamond Hotel in Manila and a restaurant on Tomas Morato in Quezon City — totaling 55 boxes between November 2024 and June 2025, all received by Bonoan’s driver.
Garcia further testified about deliveries to the late DPWH Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral at her Quezon City residence and near the Quirino Grandstand in Manila in 2023, and to Carleen Yap-Villa — a former Senate aide of Makati Mayor Nancy Binay, now an officer-in-charge in the city government — at a residence in Horseshoe Village, Quezon City.
Bernardo was scheduled to testify before the Sandiganbayan on the same day but was excused after being hospitalized for chronic rhinosinusitis, follicular pharyngitis, and acute bronchitis. His doctors advised five days of bed rest.
