Gov’t official with many hats:
Mining exec, donor, appointee

SOME GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS may be faulted for not doing enough.

Others, however, seem to be doing just a little too much.

In its investigation into the profiles of the major donors in the 2013 Senate race, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism stumbled into the case of Engineer Roberto Bernardo.

Bernardo is the Assistant Regional Director of the Department of Public Works and Highways for Region IV-A. Interestingly, Bernardo also put up a company called the International Global Mining Exchange (IGME) in 2011.

The company later donated P5 million to the campaign of former President Joseph Estrada’s Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino in the 2013 elections.

After Estrada won as Manila’s new mayor, he then plucked Bernardo (Bernardo uses the term ‘detailed’) from the DPWH to be the new City Engineer of Manila.

Was it planned, was it fate, or a confluence of events? Bernardo says it is simply a matter of trust.

Read his story on Elections: Money + Power at the PCIJ portal.