The management and rank-and-file employees of the Department of Agrarian Reform have closed ranks behind the career executives who they said were unfairly included by the Department Justice in the P900-million Malampaya Fund plunder complaint.
“According to newspaper reports, the decision to release the Malampaya Fund of P900 million to DAR was made at the Cabinet level. A letter of former Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita even antedated the letter request of our top officials at the DAR for the fund. Due to the Saro (special allotment release order) our responsibility is to see to it that the paper work is in order and now we are accused as co-conspirators in this monstrous scam. Are we at the Cabinet level?” said Nanette H. Pascual, national president of the 12,000-strong DAR Employees Association (Darea), in a statement.
Pascual noted that the same group of DAR executives and staff members were also placed under investigation by the Ombudsman a few months ago involving the release of P200 million in 2007 to a nongovernment organization controlled by alleged pork scam queen Janet Lim-Napoles.
“We found out that the DBM attached annexes listing the LGU beneficiaries, making it a done deal even before it reached [the] DAR. The DBM officials said that it was unusual, even going to the extent of branding DAR documents as fake. We have the original documents and are willing to present [them] to determine who is telling the truth. The Darea condemns this practice of turning the DAR into a virtual clearinghouse for scams concocted at the highest levels and now our rank-and-file employees and career officials are being put up as sacrificial lambs or scapegoats in chicaneries way beyond our grasp,” Pascual said.
Singling out DAR?
Pascual noted that DAR officials “even initiated” the return of another P475 million worth of Saro that was released in 2011 by the DBM after getting burned by duplicitous NGOs in the Malampaya Fund scam two years earlier.
“This is not an action of co-conspirators in a scam. The Malampaya releases total P23.6 billion, but why is the DAR singled out? Is it being penalized because it has fully liquidated the releases within six months? What about the other agencies that received parts of the fund more than three years ago and until today no liquidation was submitted? Will they now escape scrutiny?” asked Pascual.
Among the DAR employees Pascual claimed were unjustly included in the plunder case was former accountant Angelita Cacananta.
“After 34 years in service at DAR she retired two years ago hoping to enjoy peace in retirement but is now cowering in fear that authorities will pick her up for a scam that she has nothing to do with,” said Pascual.
Pascual said the other officials implicated have been with DAR for decades—Director Teresita Panlilio joined in 1978 and rose from the ranks to become director in 2005; Nilda Baui, the department cashier, started government service in 1989;. Dominador Sison, who was the administrative services director who signed the checks for release to the NGOs, joined DAR in 1982; and Ronald Venancio, the budget head, joined the DAR in 1992.
Panlilio, who has not regretted her friendship with Napoles because she claimed Napoles helped her get closer to God, has denied getting P14 million from Napoles.
According to Panlilio, when she confronted the whistle-blowers, they showed her a supposed list where she received P5 million (twice) and another for P4 milllion allegedly as her kickback for processing the DAR checks that she insisted were ministerial. Panlilio said none of the whistle-blowers admitted to seeing her getting the money from Napoles.
“They could not say anything or come up with any proof. I don’t know what is their motive,” she said.
“We urge the DOJ to be circumspect in filing charges against innocent government employees who are just doing their job,” said Pascual.
Farmers against DAR
Meanwhile, farmers in Quezon province who have long been struggling to obtain land through the agrarian reform program welcomed the filing of plunder cases against two former top officials of the DAR.
Maribel Luzara, president of Kilusang Magbubukid sa Bondoc Peninsula (KMBP), recalled that since 2006 they had been begging DAR to speed up the agrarian reform program and help tenants in court cases filed by their landlords.
“Now, we know the reason why they ignored our plea. They are not focused on their task to provide lands for the landless or assist helpless farmers but on how to acquire more government money for themselves,” Luzara said in a phone interview.
Jansepth Geronimo, coordinator of Quezon Association for Rural Development and Democratization Services, urged the Ombudsman to speed up the resolution of the plunder charges.
“Seeing the DAR officials languishing behind bars is a sweet revenge for hundreds of KMBP members who still remain in hiding and living away from their loved ones due to baseless and malicious harassment cases filed by their despotic landlords,” Geronimo said. With a report from Delfin Mallari, Inquirer Southern Luzon