CamSur town didn’t get P5M fund from NGO

NAGA CITY—The P5-million fund, supposedly released to the late Mayor Raul Matamorosa of Lupi, Camarines Sur, on Dec. 29, 2009, did not reach the supposed beneficiaries, according to the town’s incumbent mayor.

Mayor Roberto Matamorosa, elder brother of Raul, who was killed by an assassin last year, said that based on records of the local government unit here, the municipality did not receive the fund.

In a report to the mayor, municipal planning and development officer June Despacio said that in 2010 the Commission on Audit (COA) sent a letter inquiring about the P5 million supposedly released to the mayor in 2009.

Matamorosa said the COA also asked for a report on the P5 million that did not reach the local government of Lupi.

He said Despacio was also approached by personnel from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) who sought to verify the names of the farmers who were supposedly beneficiaries of the P5 million.

Despacio went through the names presented by the DAR personnel and noted that the names listed as beneficiaries were not from Lupi town.

The P5 million was listed as released through the nongovernment organization Tanglaw para sa Magsasaka Foundation, headed by a certain Nova Kay Dulay.

A probe by the NBI has found that Tanglaw para sa Magsasaka Foundation was one of the bogus NGOs that businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles set up through which P10 billion in pork barrel of five senators and 23 members of the House of Representatives was funneled over a 10-year period allegedly to facilitate kickbacks.

The NBI said the foundations used bogus recipients and forged the signatures of local officials as part of the racket.