Metro Manila, Philippines – Former executive secretary Lucas Bersamin has come to the defense of his grandnephew, former Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Undersecretary Adrian Carlos Bersamin, who faces explosive allegations of participating in a ₱100-billion kickback scheme involving insertions in the current national budget.
The controversy heightened after Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson revealed that people who “misrepresented” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. allegedly received kickbacks from the insertions, in particular Adrian Bersamin and Education Undersecretary Trygve Olaivar.
Lacson, citing information from former Public Works Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo’s camp, said Adrian Bersamin “name-dropped the president, making Zaldy Co believe that it was the president’s order to include in the bicam the P100-billion insertions.”
He added that Bernardo personally handled deliveries in billions of pesos and said that kickbacks “were never delivered to the president, but only to Olaivar,” with Bersamin allegedly present during some of the drops.
Bernardo reportedly told Lacson that the deliveries followed a precise routine: “Each of them had their own armored van… They would park in the basement of the Diamond Hotel… The amounts ranged from P800 million to P2 billion.”
The single largest delivery, Lacson said, reached ₱2 billion.
Pressed on accusations that implicated Adrian, Bersamin strongly defended him, stressing the close relationship they share.
“Alam mo si Adrian parang apo ko yan. Parang akong anak yan… Apo yan ng older brother ko na pinatay [You know, I treat Adrian as my grandchild. He is like a son… He is the grandson of my brother who was killed]. So I have been a part of his life since that time,” he said.
Bersamin also rejected suggestions that Adrian acted independently of superiors.
The allegations echoed concerns previously raised by Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla.
“I had my suspicions already before about the activities of Undersecretary Adrian Bersamin. He was already in my radar for a long time,” he said, recalling that he had earlier clashed with Lucas Bersamin over the younger Bersamin’s involvement in matters outside his authority.
“But I already knew that if somebody is capable of doing it, it was this guy,” Remulla said.
While Remulla made clear that Lucas Bersamin himself was never suspected of wrongdoing, he criticized the former chief justice for failing to restrain Adrian: “I deemed it a bit of a weakness on his part to allow somebody like Adrian to run around the place and it was very disconcerting for me to see that.”
