A longtime aide of former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo testified before the Sandiganbayan about delivering boxes and suitcases to personalities linked to anomalous flood control projects.
Vergel Niño Garcia, who has served as Bernardo's personal aide for 20 years, testified Tuesday during the bail hearing for former senator Ramon Revilla Jr. and other DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering office officials on malversation charges. Bernardo instructed him to deliver 12 sealed boxes to Revilla’s White House Compound in Cavite in February 2025, Garcia said. He saw Revilla at the compound but did not witness him receiving the boxes.
Garcia stated he was unaware the boxes and suitcases contained cash until the flood control scandal emerged. His account corroborates Bernardo’s testimony before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee last year that P250 million was delivered to Revilla in February 2025 ahead of the elections. Garcia also delivered packages to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada in San Juan in November 2024, former education undersecretary Trygve Olaivar at multiple Makati sites in 2023 and 2024, the late DPWH undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral in Quezon City and Manila in 2023, former DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan in Manila and Quezon City from November 2024 to June 2025, and Carleen Yap-Villa in Quezon City.
The prosecution presented Bernardo’s driver, Francisco dela Fuente, who confirmed delivering boxes to Revilla’s compound in 2024, when Revilla was present, and in March 2025, when aides received them. Bernardo, excused from testifying, cited medical advice for five days of bed rest due to respiratory illnesses.
