Senate denies holiday furlough for Curlee, DPWH engineers

MANILA, Philippines — Contractor Curlee Discaya and sacked Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) engineers Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez and Jaypee Mendoza will spend the holidays in Senate detention after their request for Christmas furlough was denied, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson said.

“I recommended to the Senate President that their request for Christmas furlough be denied mainly for security reasons, owing to the repeated media statements from Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that arrest warrants against them will be issued before Christmas,” Lacson said of the four, who were cited in contempt and detained for lying before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee flood control probe.

“So the risk of escape becomes greater – not to mention that it makes no sense to grant such requests for Christmas leave if indeed warrants are coming out by then,” he added.

The detained resource persons, however, were allowed to attend mass at the Senate and to be visited by family within Senate premises.

They will not be allowed to leave Senate custody, Lacson said.

“That’s the most that we can allow, given the circumstances,” he said.

While Curlee Discaya is under Senate custody, his contractor wife Sarah has been arrested and is now detained at the Lapu-Lapu city jail for a non-bailable malversation case involving an alleged P96.5-million “ghost” flood control project in Davao Occidental.