The Department of Justice (DOJ) has dismissed the perjury complaint filed by Senator Jinggoy Estrada against former Public Works Engineer Brice Hernandez, citing insufficient evidence to establish willful falsehood.
In a 12-page resolution issued by the DOJ Office of the City Prosecutor in Quezon City, prosecutors ruled that Estrada failed to prove that Hernandez acted with malicious intent when he accused the senator of receiving kickbacks from flood control projects.
“The respondent’s primary accusation, that the complainant received kickbacks based on representations from his superior, fails to meet the standard for a willful falsehood,” the resolution said, noting that Hernandez “has consistently maintained that he based his statements on his personal knowledge and involvement in the DPWH’s operations and that he believed these statements to be true at the time he made them.”
Prosecutors added that Hernandez’s claim of acting as a whistleblower “remains plausible,” stressing that denials from other witnesses and the submission of Estrada’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth “do not, by themselves, conclusively prove that the respondent knew his statement was false at the moment he swore to it.”
The DOJ also cited sworn statements from Hernandez’s superior and former Public Works Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, whose alleged confirmation of kickbacks “lends further credibility” to Hernandez’s assertion that he relied on information he believed to be reliable.
“As the Supreme Court has held, the complainant [Estrada] must prove not only that the statement was false, but also that the defendant did not believe it to be true,” the resolution said, adding that evidence suggests Hernandez may have repeated what he “genuinely, even if mistakenly, believed to be true.”
While Estrada pointed to inconsistencies in Hernandez’s statements, prosecutors ruled these were insufficient to constitute perjury.
“Under the established doctrine, these contradictory statements alone are insufficient to establish perjury without independent, corroborative evidence,” the DOJ said.
The resolution concluded that even if Hernandez’s statements were flawed or ill-motivated, they did not meet the legal threshold for perjury.
“The evidence on record does not sufficiently demonstrate that he made them with the evil intent and legal malice that perjury requires,” it said.
The DOJ ultimately recommended the dismissal of the complaint “for lack of sufficient evidence to sustain prima facie evidence with reasonable certainty of conviction.”