Screengrab from a footage released by One News PH showing former Public Works and Highways Secretary Manuel Bonoan testifying for the first time on the malversation case against former senator Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Jr. at the Sandiganbayan on August 12, 2026. (Courtesy: One News PH)
All senators in 2024 received a so-called “leadership fund”—a minimum of P500 million per senator and up to P1 billion for those who have committee chairmanships, former Public Works secretary Manuel Bonoan testified before the Sandiganbayan on Wednesday.
Bonoan disclosed this during the hearing on the malversation case against former senator Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Jr. over an alleged ghost project in Pandi, Bulacan.
He claimed the total amount of leadership fund reached P24 billion, with then Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri having the discretion as to increases.
“The fund will be under the discretion of the Senate president but there are thresholds we have agreed on,” Bonoan said.
Bonoan added that then DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo allegedly used Revilla and Senator Jinggoy Estrada to submit lists of projects. He said Senators Bong Go and Robin Padilla also submitted such a list through Bernardo.
Asked if the senators approached him directly, Bonoan said it was either the senators’ staff or Bernardo. He also disclosed that Padilla and Senator Imee Marcos allegedly thanked him for his “assistance.”
Zubiri, for his part, vehemently denied Bonoan’s allegations.
“For the record, as Senate President, I never requested, held, or handled any list of project requests from senators. I refused to handle any such list,” he said in a statement.
“No proposed budget amendments were coursed through our office. The senators know that. All requests are coursed through the Senate Committee on Finance, which oversees the budget process in the Senate,” he added.
Marcos said she was not aware of Bonoan’s claims: “I don’t know what expression of thanks was he referring to.”
Asked whether Revilla, then chairperson of the Senate committee on public works in the 19th Congress, also received leadership fund, Bonoan said ‘yes.’
He said all senators in the 19th Congress also “availed of the leadership fund” in fiscal year 2025.
Asked by Associate Justice Ronald Moreno if Senator Panfilo Lacson is among those who availed of the leadership fund, Bonoan said ‘no.’
He said Lacson was not yet an incumbent senator when the leadership fund for 2025 was being prepared in 2024.
Lacson last year questioned the DPWH for implementing the leadership fund, which he said allowed lawmakers to tinker with the National Expenditure Program (NEP).
“The NEP is the President’s budget proposal to be transmitted to the House and eventually to the Senate. Why are there insertions in the NEP? That I cannot really understand for the life of me,” Lacson said in 2025.
“You did not want to call it an insertion, so you called it a ‘leadership fund.’ Why are you accommodating lawmakers’ proposals?” he added.