The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan described as "preposterous" a blogger's claims that P800 billion worth of flood control projects had been cornered by six lawmakers.

Bonoan gave the remarks Monday, Aug. 4 during a briefing held by the Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon-chaired House Committee on Public Accounts.

Suffice it to say that amid the dissatisfaction in recent days over the DPWH's costly yet failed fllood control projects, it was Bonoan who the House of Representatives members wanted to hear talk.

Senior Deputy Speaker Quezon 2nd district Rep. David “Jay-jay” Suarez raised the blogger's allegation during Monday's hearing and strongly condemned it. He warned against the spread of such disinformation.

“Well, I have gone through, actually, the political blogger that you’ve given me, Your Honor. And what I can say, we don’t have this kind of information at all in the department. To me, it’s a little preposterous, actually, to have something like this—P800 billion for six members of Congress,” Bonoan told the solons.

Suarez pointed to a Facebook post that accused unnamed congressmen of manipulating the massive flood control budgets for personal or political gain.

“I was informed that there have been posts on social media circulating identifying certain members of the House of Representatives, malicious in fact, stating that these congressmen control X amount of flood control projects, etc., etc., which has been shared many times,” said the senior deputy speaker.

“Now, for the sake of transparency, truthfulness, can I ask the good secretary to comment on these malicious posts?” he asked Bonoan.

The DPWH chief confirmed that the viral post claimed “six congressmen have cornered P800 billion for flood control projects".

Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. subsequently asked Bonoan to state clearly on the record whether such an allocation existed.

“What I’m saying is that we don’t have any specific record of this kind of allocation for the six congressmen that has been put into this [post],” Bonoan replied.

Ridon noted that the claim did not originate from any mainstream media outlet but from a Facebook post.

Suarez said the House took the issue seriously, especially as it intended to carry out its oversight functions in response to President Marcos' call for accountability in infrastructure spending in his State of the Nation Address (SONA).

“It’s totally unfair, especially if you’re out to destroy the good name of people who were duly elected by their districts,” he added.

Suarez said Congress would not allow falsehoods to erode public trust in institutions. “We need to get our facts. We need to get the truth, especially when we’re trying to investigate issues and problems that affect the country,”

“If there are malicious people who want to take advantage of this by throwing out fake news, fake posts meant to malign and destroy the good name, hindi po pwede ‘yan. Walang lugar po sa atin ‘yun at higit sa lahat, hindi po tama ‘yun (we can't have that. There's no place for that here and most of all, that is not right),” he added.