Bersamin’s Basement Blitz, Olaivar’s Filthy Fingers, Lacson’s Slick Spin: The P100-Billion Epic of Pilfered Piles and Phony Farewells

Greed’s Grand Getaway: From Hotel Hides to Headline Hysterics

By Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo — November 19, 2025

I. OPENING GAMBIT: THE BASEMENT WHERE THE REPUBLIC WAS SOLD

Some stories begin with heroes.
This one begins in a hotel basement.

The setting: a Diamond Hotel parking level, glistening under fluorescent lights, where armored vans roll in like funeral processions carrying the remains of public trust. Men with clipboards. Courier bags filled not with documents, but with bundled billions. No receipts, no shame. Just the soft thud of cold cash being unloaded—₱800 million here, ₱2 billion there—ten times over.

Aboveground, in the polished corridors of Malacañang, whispers travel faster than legislation:
“The President wants this.”
“Malacañang needs that.”
“Si Boss mismo ang may utos.”

Name-dropping has always been a cheap trick—until it becomes the doorway to a ₱100 billion heist.

And then, like clockwork, the holy sacrament of Philippine political sin: the resignations—performed with the solemnity of a funeral and the timing of a guilty conscience.

But today, we bury not the truth—we bury the lies.

**Collection plate so deep even the law falls through.**

II. CAST OF CHARACTERS: ANNOTATED, DISSECTED, AND DISPOSED OF

Let us be surgical.
Let us be cruel.
Let us be accurate.

A. Adrian Carlos Bersamin (Adrian) — PLLO Undersecretary, Resigned Architect of Alleged Deceit

Do not confuse him with Lucas.
One signed denials.
The other signed—well—receipts of a different nature.

Adrian, according to Sen. Ping Lacson and the sworn accounts of DPWH’s Roberto Bernardo, allegedly strutted across Congress like a bagman of the gods—dropping the President’s name like confetti, waving around the authority he allegedly did not have but boldly impersonated.

His resignation?
Ah, the classic Filipino bureaucrat’s fig leaf.
Not an act of honor—
an act of escape.

B. Trygve Olaivar — DepEd Undersecretary, Co-Engineer of the ₱8B Drop-Off Ballet

Olaivar did not just resign.
He fled the scene of a crime without running.

Bernardo’s testimony, echoed by Lacson, alleges that Trygve Olaivar was deep in the receiving end—literally—of about ₱8 billion delivered through armored vans. Eight billion. Enough to air-condition every public school he was supposed to serve.

Yet his defense?
“I deny everything.”

Of course he does.
Everyone denies until the CCTV rolls.

C. Lucas P. Bersamin (Lucas) — Executive Secretary, Not Adrian, Issuer of Denials

Lucas is a different creature—older, more polished, more cautious. He issued the formal denial regarding OES involvement. Whether his office was misused or misrepresented will be for evidence, not rumor, to determine.

But unlike Adrian, Lucas fights with signatures, not basements.

D. Senator Panfilo Lacson — The Necessary Contradiction

Lacson is both the sword and the shield, the truth-teller and the plausible deniability machine.

He confirms the ₱100B insertion list—praise be—
but absolves the President, insisting “the real villains” are undersecretaries misrepresenting him.

Is he right? Possibly.
Is he useful? Absolutely.
Is he also shielding someone?
You decide.

His main source, Roberto Bernardo, is himself facing graft charges. A compromised source is a convenient ally—right until he isn’t.

Lacson walks a tightrope between revelation and protection.
But at least he walked it publicly.

III. LEGAL ANNIHILATION: WHERE THE LAW RIPS THE MASKS OFF

Now we put away the poetry.
It is time to prosecute.

A. PLUNDER — Presidential Level Theft Without the President

Under RA 7080, plunder begins at ₱50 million.

Here, the alleged amounts delivered through vans?
₱800 million to ₱2 billion per drop.

Ten drops.

This is not graft.
This is not misconduct.
This is not administrative negligence.

This is grand theft on a planetary scale.

If even a fraction of Bernardo’s account is true, Adrian (Adrian) and Trygve Olaivar qualify for plunder charges that make the Estrada case look like petty shoplifting.

B. GRAFT AND CORRUPT PRACTICES — RA 3019

Section 3:
Name-dropping, demanding insertions, and receiving kickbacks?

Textbook.
Child’s play.

If a law student submitted this as a hypothetical fact pattern, the professor would say:
“Too obvious. Make the corruption less cartoonish.”

C. BRIBERY — RPC Articles 210–213

You cannot be an undersecretary accepting cash drops while claiming these were “miscommunications.”

Bribery is the beating heart of this scheme.
Everything else is garnish.

D. CODE OF CONDUCT — RA 6713

Their resignations?
Laughable.

They were not resignations of delicadeza.
They were the bureaucratic version of removing SIM cards before the police arrive.

Under RA 6713, these men should have been preventively suspended long before they could shred documents, sanitize inboxes, or flee the crime scene politically intact.

E. PRECEDENTS: THE LAW’S DAGGER

Arroyo v. People (Plunder)

The Supreme Court warned: plunder requires a coherent chain of evidence, not rumor.

So here’s the challenge to the Ombudsman:
PROVE IT or ADMIT YOU REFUSE TO.

Gutierrez v. Sandiganbayan

This case spells out a brutal truth:
When an official faces serious corruption allegations, immediate suspension is not optional.

It is mandatory.

If Adrian (Adrian) and Olaivar are not formally suspended pending investigation, the Republic might as well hand them medals.

IV. PROSECUTION PATHWAY: A BLUEPRINT FOR WAR

This is no longer a narrative.
This is an operational plan.

The Ombudsman must:

1. Seize and preserve all PLLO, DepEd, and DPWH digital records.

No advance notice.
No courtesy calls.
Knock on the door and take the servers.

2. Subpoena the bank records of:

Adrian (Adrian)
Trygve Olaivar
All family members
All corporations remotely connected

Follow the money.
It always sings.

3. Obtain the Diamond Hotel CCTV and armored-van manifests.

If these vans exist, the footage exists.
If the footage disappears, that is itself evidence.

4. Secure call data records.

Name-dropping does not happen in silence.
Text threads and call logs never lie.

5. File administrative charges under RA 6713.

Immediate preventive suspension is the only way to stop cover-ups.

6. Prepare plunder informations for the Sandiganbayan.

The law will not enforce itself.

V. GRAND FINALE: A NATION DEMANDS MORE THAN RESIGNATIONS

Let us end with honesty.
Resignations are theater.
A performance staged by men who think the Filipino people are stupid.

But justice—real justice—does not accept exit passes.

The Filipino people demand:

Not PR statements
Not denials
Not delicadeza
Prosecution. Now.

This scandal is no longer about a ₱100B insertion.
It is about whether we still live under laws—or under a syndicate wearing barongs.

So to the Ombudsman:

The basement has told its story.
The armored vans have whispered their truths.
The resignations have confessed with their timing what their mouths refuse to admit.

Now it is your turn.
Act. Investigate. Prosecute.
Not tomorrow. Not next week.
Today.

Because if ₱100 billion can vanish inside hotel basements, then the Republic itself may already be gone.