Philippine Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson has laid out critical allegations towards a bunch of former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) engineers, whom he referred to because the “BGC Boys” or Bulacan Group of Contractors. In a privilege speech, Lacson claimed the group suffered playing losses amounting to greater than PHP950 million throughout 13 casinos positioned in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Pampanga.
Casino Transactions Exceeding a Billion Pesos
“Based on the documents we obtained from Pagcor, the casino losses of these five individuals are staggering — totaling P950 million in gross losses,” Lacson acknowledged, pointing to official and validated on line casino data.
The people named included District Engineer Henry Alcantara, together with Assistant Engineers Brice Hernandez, Jaypee Mendoza, Arjay Domasig, and Edrick San Diego. Many of them allegedly used false identities whereas playing, with Hernandez and Mendoza recording the best losses at PHP435 million and PHP418 million, respectively. Alcantara’s data confirmed losses of PHP36.7 million beneath an alias, whereas Domasig and San Diego misplaced PHP16.9 million and PHP42.4 million, respectively.
Beyond losses, the whole transaction quantity linked to these males was reportedly even bigger. Lacson cited figures displaying Alcantara alone transformed PHP1.42 billion in money to chips from 2023 to 2025, recovering practically PHP998 million again into money. Hernandez’s transactions confirmed PHP659.9 million transformed into chips and PHP1.38 billion transformed again to money.
“Yes, you heard it right, B as in billion,” Lacson emphasised, as reported by JIJI Press.
The Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) has since confirmed it should examine casinos linked to these allegations. AMLC govt director Matthew David defined on the GMA program 24 Oras that penalties could also be imposed relying on violations discovered in the course of the probe. “There is a corresponding penalty under our rules on administrative cases against covered persons. There’s a table of penalties for that, depending on the possible violation we find,” he mentioned.
Casinos within the Philippines have been categorised as “covered persons” since 2017, that means they’re required to report any transaction exceeding PHP5 million, confirm buyer identities, and hold detailed data for no less than 5 years. The AMLC investigation will give attention to whether or not these obligations have been correctly met and whether or not on line casino workers failed to establish suspicious actions.
Lacson additionally criticized casinos for permitting giant conversions of money to chips and again once more with out flagging the exercise to regulators. He alleged that among the engineers used a number of authorities IDs and false names, making it troublesome to observe the transactions.
Alleged Corruption in Flood Control Projects
The scandal goes past on line casino flooring. According to Lacson, the engineers’ actions are tied to irregularities in DPWH flood management tasks in Bulacan. He described manipulated bidding processes, fabricated progress stories, and falsified paperwork. “These are not clerical errors; these are fingerprints of a system perfected over the years to pocket billions of funds,” he mentioned.
One instance he cited concerned a PHP92.58 million river challenge in Barangay Perez, Bulacan. Despite being awarded in mid-December 2024, the contractor claimed practically half completion inside two days and billed nearly 50% of the challenge value. By March 2025, authorities funds had continued, but inspectors discovered little to no precise progress. Another firm, IM Construction Corporation, allegedly submitted duplicate images in progress stories to justify repeated funds.
Lacson additionally claimed Wawao Builders appeared to know upfront that it might safe contracts for tasks in Calumpit, Bulacan, and reported 50% completion inside only a week.
He warned that the misuse of public funds had left communities in Bulacan uncovered to ongoing flooding. “In summary, while the people of Bulacan remain submerged in floodwaters due to the corruption of these individuals — and despite the President himself exposing the wrongdoing — the BGC Boys continue to indulge themselves, wasting the people’s money without remorse,” Lacson declared.
The scandal has resonated nationally, elevating issues over corruption, monetary crime, and regulatory oversight within the on line casino sector. Documents allegedly level to suspicious funding patterns, with fast disbursements from the Department of Budget and Management previous spikes in on line casino betting by the identical group of officers. Lifestyle checks additionally instructed that a few of them had acquired luxurious automobiles and farmland regardless of modest authorities salaries.
The AMLC’s ongoing probe will decide whether or not casinos failed to uphold anti-money laundering safeguards and will lead to sanctions towards operators. Meanwhile, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee continues to examine the DPWH tasks on the coronary heart of the allegations, underscoring broader issues concerning the misuse of state funds and the weaknesses of monetary oversight mechanisms within the Philippines.
