Syjuco barred from leaving

MANILA, Philippines—The Sandiganbayan has issued a hold-departure order against Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco in connection with six grafts charges filed against him.

Also issued an HDO were Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Deputy Director General Rogelio Peyuan; Tesda directors Antonio del Rosario, Ernesto Beltran, Teodoro Sanico, Buen Mondejar and lawyer Marjorie Docdocil; chief administrative officer Juanito Belda; administrative officer Maximiano Montemayor and senior administrative assistant Francisco Fang; and Vicente Roxas, president of V.G. Roxas Co. Inc., which supplied the training equipment and testing tools.

The case stemmed from the complaints filed by the Office of the Ombudsman Field Investigation Office (FIO) and Annie Geron arising from the irregularities in the disbursement of public funds relating to the Ladderized Education Program of the Tesda (Leptes), particularly those involving the Leptes -02, -03 and Nordic Development Fund-Tesda (NDFTes) projects.

The Ombudsman resolution cited the March 12, 2009, report of the Commission on Audit (COA) that discovered that the training equipment and testing tools delivered by V.G. Roxas Co. Inc. under the Leptes and NDFTes projects were of low quality and overpriced ranging from 4 percent to 42,732 percent, or by P61 million which account for at least 20.18 percent of the total procurement amount of P302 million.