Funds for papal visit ops didn’t pass through my hands—Marquez

Police Director Ricardo Marquez. INQUIRER.net PHOTO/JULLIANE LOVE DE JESUS

THE police official being dragged into the alleged missing funds for the allowance of 25,000 policemen deployed during Pope Francis’ visit in January denied having direct control of the budget.

Police Director Ricardo Marquez, the task force head for the papal visit, responded to the issues on funds the PNP allegedly failed to distribute to its personnel. Some policemen claimed they did not receive in full the P2,400 food allowance per officer.

The controversy cropped up amid speculations that President Benigno Aquino III had been considering the PNP Directorate for Operations chief to replace Purisima as the head of the 150,000-strong police force.

“At no point in time that the funds for Pope operations passed through my hands,” Marquez said in an interview at his office in Camp Crame on Thursday.

The national joint task force he headed, according to Marquez, is directly supervised by the Office of the President. Under the national task force are several agencies.

“Our sole mandate was to secure the Pope. The resources went directly to the different agencies, not to the national joint task force,” he stressed.

He said he cannot be held accountable for the issue since he had no hand in the release of the funds.

Marquez said it is the Directorate for Comptrollership that could shed light on the issue, particularly the disbursement of budget on food allowances of each 25,000 personnel.

The PNP’s directorate for comptrollership was headed by then Police Director Rolando Purugganan who retired in June. He was replaced by Chief Superintendent Danilo Pelisco.

“For the PNP’s part, I’m not in the position to clarify that. It is the directorate for comptrollership who could answer that. The directorate for operations does not handle funds of the PNP,” he said.

But Marquez said he was no longer surprised that there would be attempts to tarnish his name as one of the contenders for chief PNP.

President Aquino is reportedly choosing between Marquez and Deputy Director General Danilo Constantino, Marquez’s Philippine Military Academy classmate, to lead the PNP.

“I hope tama na. Kailangan magtulung-tulong para maka-move on ang PNP. Kayo na nagsasabi na naapektuhan ang morale, tulungan niyo kami na ayusin ito,” he said.