Mindanao pork scam probe expanded

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales. SENATE POOL FILE PHOTO

DAVAO CITY—The Ombudsman has expanded its investigation on the systematic theft in Mindanao of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), also known as pork barrel, after finding that hundreds of millions of pesos in public funds went to ghost projects and fictitious beneficiaries.

Rodolfo Elman, deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao, said two lawyers from the agency who are helping investigate the theft of public funds through the PDAF have found scams in at least two regions.

“So far, the supposed beneficiaries disclosed that they have not received funds for the projects,” said Elman, who, however, refused to reveal further details on the investigation.

According to Elman, Central Mindanao is the region with the most officials charged with graft in the Office of the Ombudsman.

Most cases

While he did not say how many of the 344 graft cases filed in the Ombudsman involved officials from Central Mindanao, Elman said they accounted for “most of the cases.”

The region is composed of the provinces of north and south Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani, and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Tacurong and Kidapawan.

Mindanao is divided into five regions—central, western, northern and southern Mindanao, and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

He said the complaints against officials ranged from misuse to malversation or technical malversation of public funds.

“A number of these cases are pending investigation,” Elman said, adding that among those charged were village officials who spent money “our way.”

‘No evil intent’

Elman said that in the initial investigation of some cases involving village officials, it was found that “they had no evil intent to misuse funds.”

“But they lacked knowledge on the legal provisions of the law,” he said, especially on auditing rules and procedures.

He said the Office of the Ombudsman was trying to dispose of the cases as quickly as it could but with caution.

Elman said several factors affected the pace of disposition of cases.

Aside from the 344 graft complaints, the Ombudsman in Mindanao is also handling 982 other criminal and administrative cases against public officials.

He said 40 of these cases were against heads or officers of the Department of Agrarian Reform, 36 against officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, 21 against officials of the Land Transportation Office and 17 against officials of the Philippine National Police.

Cases have also been filed against officials of the Department of Education (18), state universities and colleges (14), Bureau of Internal Revenue (13), Department of Agriculture (9), Bureau of Customs (4), Department of the Interior and Local Government (4), Philippine Postal Corp. (5) and Bureau of Fire (3).

“So you can see that most cases are against those in the local government units,” Elman said.

Elman said Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales wanted the investigation completed as soon as possible.

Elman said it was good that a massive investigation on the use of the PDAF is happening, as this would help “stop corruption on the use of government money to finance pet projects of the senators and congressmen.” Ayan C. Mellejor, Inquirer Mindanao