COA to 7 lawmakers: Return P1.8B pork
COA Chair Ma. Gracia Pulido-Tan: A big lie. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–The Commission on Audit (COA) has asked three senators and four congressmen to return a total of P1.83 billion in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations irregularly disbursed to nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in 2007-2009.
COA Chair Ma. Gracia Pulido-Tan said her office issued 19 notices of disallowance to the seven lawmakers early this year, belying the claim of Greco Antonious Beda Belgica Jr. and three others who claimed that the COA had not done so.
Tan said the COA would issue 27 more notices covering P4.96 billion soon.
Belgica et al. petitioned the Supreme Court on Friday to compel Tan and COA Director Susana Garcia to issue notices of disallowance to those responsible for channeling P6.2 billion in PDAF to NGOs.
A special audit of the COA, released in August last year, said funds totaling P6.2 billion were transferred to 82 NGOs “in clear violation of the law” from 2007 to 2009.
The audit noted that the NGOs were “either unknown or could not be located at their given addresses, or have given nonexistent addresses, or were traced to mere shanties or high-end residences, which turned out to be residences of their owners/officers.”
It said 10 NGOs linked to Janet Lim-Napoles were on the list.
In their petition, Reuben Abante, Jose Gonzales and Mandamus Quintin Paredes told the high court that fellow petitioner Belgica had sent Tan a letter reminding her of her promise to issue the notices but did not get a reply.
‘Big lie’
“It’s a big lie that I did not answer his (Belgica) letter. I did and our records show it was sent to him by speed mail on Jan. 20,” Tan, a lawyer, said in a text message to the Inquirer.
Tan refused to name the senators and congressmen involved as well as the dates and the amounts covered by the notices.
“Sorry, can’t give (that). As I stated in my letter to Belgica, the NDs (notices of disallowance) are subject to appeal so we have to respect the rights of those concerned,” said the COA chair.
Tan furnished the Inquirer a copy of her letter reply to Belgica dated Jan. 20.
On Dec. 8, 2013, Belgica wrote Tan asking her to “fulfill her duty of satisfying the promise she gave the Filipino people under oath at the Supreme Court” that her office would be issuing notices of disallowance to the senators, congressmen and executive officials allegedly involved in the diversion of the PDAF.
Not a promise
“At the outset, let me state for the record that my statement before the Supreme Court is not a ‘promise’; It was a statement of fact, it being our duty to do so,” she wrote.
In the same letter, Tan told Belgica that she could not furnish him copies of the notices as a matter of policy and in consideration of the right of the recipient to appeal.
She said that with the issuance of the notices, “the matter has come to a quasi-judicial process; they are subject to appeal should the recipients be minded to take this remedy.”
12 senators, 180 representatives
She said the COA special audit of the pork barrel for 2007-2009 also showed that P6.2 billion, sourced from the PDAF of 12 senators and 180 representatives, was transferred by different agencies to 82 NGOs.
In another report, the COA said P195 million in PDAF of three incumbent senators and a former congressman went to dubious NGOs in 2011.
The audit report identified then Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, then Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. and then Buhay Rep. Rene Velarde as the sources of the P206 million in PDAF for the Department of Agriculture that was released in several batches in 2009 and 2010.
Of the amount, P201 million was turned over by the agriculture department to ZNAC Rubber Estate Corp., a government-owned and -controlled corporation, which in turn transferred P194.97 million to Pangkabuhayan Foundation Inc. (PFI).
Of the amount received by PFI, P74.69 million came from Enrile’s pork barrel, P106.7 million from Estrada’s, P9.7 million from Revilla’s and P3.88 million from Velarde’s, the COA said.
The COA report further said that the financial statements and income tax returns from 2006 to 2008 indicated that the government was PFI’s only source of funding.
Late last year, Tan confirmed that 10 NGOs with links to Napoles, alleged mastermind of the P10-billion pork scam, illegally got hold of P2.157 billion of the legislators’ pork barrel between 2007 and 2009.
Amid public outrage over the misuse of the PDAF, the Supreme Court declared the pork barrel unconstitutional last December.
Originally posted at 01:31 am | Tuesday, June 10, 2014
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