Ex-COA chief nabbed for plunder

By: Marlon Ramos - 11 years ago

Mugshot of Reynaldo Villar. PNP PIO FILE PHOTO

Police arrested former Commission on Audit (COA) chief Reynaldo Villar yesterday in connection with a plunder case which stemmed from the alleged misuse of P366 million in Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) confidential and intelligence funds during the Arroyo administration.

Agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) served the arrest warrant for Villar at his residence at a posh subdivision in Parañaque City, according to Senior Supt. Roberto Fajardo, chief of the CIDG-National Capital Region.

Villar, 72, was one of the coaccused of former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the plunder case filed by former Customs Deputy Commissioner Danilo Lim and former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros.

At the time of the transactions, Villar headed the COA, which was tasked with examining and auditing public funds to make sure they were spent properly. He stepped down from his post in 2011 following a controversy over when his term as COA chair would end.

Fajardo said the ex-COA chief did not resist arrest when CIDG agents went to his house at No. 5 Washington Square in Merville Park at around 4 p.m. armed with the warrant issued by the First Division of the Sandiganbayan.

“He had actually gone into hiding. We have been looking for him for quite some time,” Fajardo told the Inquirer.

“I dispatched a team to serve the arrest warrant after receiving an information that (Villar) returned to his house after the Holy Week,” he added.

As of 7 p.m. yesterday, Villar was still undergoing medical examination and booking process at the CIDG-NCR office.

He was appointed COA commissioner in 2004 for a seven-year term ending in 2011. In 2008, he was named COA chair, and a new commissioner was named to take his place and serve the rest of his term.

Villar had argued that with his new appointment as chief of the audit agency, he has a fresh seven-year term ending in 2015.

In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that Villar could not have been validly appointed to a full seven-year term as COA chair in 2008. With a report from Leila B. Salaverria