Former Eastern Samar Rep. Teodulo Coquilla has been charged with two counts each of graft and malversation before the Sandiganbayan for the alleged anomalous use of nearly P5 million of his legislative pork barrel in 2008.
The Office of the Ombudsman similarly charged six others who allegedly connived with Coquilla in misusing his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
These are National Agri-Business Corporation (Nabcor) officials Alan Javellana, Encarnita Munsod, Julie Johnson and Romulo Relevo, as well as Margie Luz and Cristina Vizcarra of the alleged bogus nongovernment organization Gabaymasa Development Foundation Inc.
The Ombudsman alleged that Coquilla handpicked Gabaymasa to receive P4.365 million and another P485,000 from his PDAF allocation in January 2008 for what were later found to be ghost livelihood projects.
The Nabcor officials allegedly facilitated the release of the PDAF funds to Gabaymasa without verifying the project documents, while the two NGO representatives forged documents to make it appear the projects were implemented.
“Javellana and the (other) Nabcor officials allowed Luz and Vizcarra to take possession and thus misappropriate PDAF-drawn public funds instead of implementing the PDAF-funded projects which turned out to be nonexistent,” the Ombudsman told the Sandiganbayan.