PACC: Charge 12 NHA execs over ‘Yolanda’ funds

MANILA, Philippines — The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) on Wednesday recommended that 12 former and incumbent officials of the National Housing Authority (NHA) be charged in the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the allegedly anomalous  Yolanda Permanent Housing Program (YPHP).

The officials are former NHA General Manager Sinforoso Pagunsan, Assistant General Manager and bids and awards committee (BAC) Chair Froilan Kampitan, BAC Vice Chair Ma. Alma Valenciano, BAC member Lorna Seraspe, BAC member Eleanor Balatbat, BAC member Susana  Nonato, BAC member Romuel Alimboyao, Technical Working Group (TWG) member engineer Alvin Rey Calbario, TWG member Grace Guevara, BAC 2 Chair Victor Balba, BAC 2 Vice Chair Felicisimo Lazarte Jr. and BAC member Ma. Magdalena Siacon.

PACC Chair Dante Jimenez said the officials gave “unwarranted benefits, advantage and preference” to J.C. Tanyag Builders, Inc., the sole contractor of the YPHP, which was found to have “fraudulently misrepresented its technical capacity” to enter into nine “Yolanda”-related contracts with the government. —Patricia Denise M. Chiu