# Philippine DOJ Files Graft and Malversation Complaint Against Senators and Former Lawmakers
The Philippine Justice Department has expedited the filing of a criminal complaint for graft and malversation against a group of senators, a representative and former lawmakers, Rappler reported on Sept. 23, 2025. The move pushes the case into preliminary investigation and marks the first complaint against the public figures named in the report.
According to the supplied excerpt, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the department treated the sworn affidavit of former public works engineer Henry Alcantara as a complaint-affidavit, with the National Bureau of Investigation acting as the endorsing agency. That procedural detail matters because it means the filing was not being treated as a loose allegation. It was being moved into a formal investigative track.
The lawmakers named in the report are Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva, Ako Bicol Representative Zaldy Co, and former Caloocan representative Mitch Cajayon-Uy. Remulla said the allegations involved kickbacks from Department of Public Works and Highways projects. The report does not give the evidentiary record in full, but it makes clear that the complaint was built around Alcantara’s sworn statement.
The case also reached beyond the criminal complaint itself. Remulla said the department was coordinating with the Anti-Money Laundering Council to seek freeze orders on the bank accounts of those identified by Alcantara as having received kickbacks. That suggests the government is treating the matter as both a corruption probe and a potential financial tracing exercise.
For the lawmakers involved, the immediate consequence is scrutiny rather than judgment. A complaint-affidavit opens the door to a preliminary investigation, not a conviction. But in politically sensitive corruption allegations, that opening step can still be consequential, especially when it involves sitting senators and a former speaker-level political network tied to public works spending.
The report also implies the case is only the first in what could become a wider inquiry. The fact that the DOJ moved quickly after Alcantara’s affidavit suggests investigators considered the allegations serious enough to proceed without delay. Rappler’s wording makes the procedural shift explicit: the department treated the affidavit as a complaint and sent it into the legal process.
The political significance is obvious. Public works scandals can quickly move from isolated procurement questions into broader tests of accountability, especially when multiple elected officials are implicated. For now, the record in the supplied excerpt is narrow but important: the DOJ has acted, the NBI has endorsed the filing, and the AMLC may be asked to help trace the money.
