Pampanga fishermen ask COA: Take our names off beneficiary list

Several fishermen in Masantol, Pampanga, on Monday appealed to the Commission on Audit to take out their names of the list of beneficiaries of a nongovernment organization in their area as among those that implemented alleged ghost projects funded by proceeds from the Malampaya gas fields off Palawan and facilitated by Janet Lim-Napoles (shown in photo).

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines—“Please take our names out of the list.”

Arnel Cunanan, Teody Salarda, Gerry Viray and several fishermen in Masantol, Pampanga, on Monday aired this appeal to the Commission on Audit (COA).

They made the appeal as whistle-blowers identified a nongovernment organization (NGO) in their area as among those that implemented alleged ghost projects funded by proceeds from the Malampaya gas fields off Palawan and facilitated by Janet Lim-Napoles.

Cunanan’s group asked the COA to clear it of any criminal liability, saying it was not a beneficiary of the so-called Farming Yield Emergency Contingency Project in 2009 by the Kaupdanan para sa Mangunguma Foundation Inc. (KMFI).

KMFI was among 20 NGOs within the network of JLN Corp., the company of Napoles. JLN Corp. was also linked to the misuse of pork barrel funds of a number of senators and members of the House of Representatives.

In Central Luzon, except in Zambales province, 17 NGOs were shown to have been paid P172 million for 22 projects. Several of them proposed 22 projects worth P172.5 million.

Four projects were supposedly implemented in Masantol, Macabebe and San Luis towns in the province’s fourth district and Guagua town in Pampanga’s second district. Each project was worth P7.5 million.

Dr. Anna York Bondoc, former representative of the fourth district, said the projects did not pass through her office and were not requested by her office.

Former Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo could not be reached for comment on Monday about the lone project in the second district.

Forged signatures

“We have not heard of this NGO or met their leaders. Other NGOs contact us and work with us, but KMFI did not,” Cunanan said on Monday.

Cunanan said his group learned about the project only when the COA sent it a letter, dated July 13, 2012, for a “sectoral performance audit on the receipt and utilization of Malampaya funds during [calendar years] 2002-2011.”

Cunanan said a page that COA had attached to the letter showed the names of the beneficiaries and the villages where they live. “But our signatures were forged. Those were not our signatures,” he said.

Viray said he told COA officials in December last year that his group did not get any agricultural input package consisting of a heavy-duty sprayer, organized container, farming paraphernalia, gloves, seeds and seedlings worth a total of P35,781.

“And if they were giving us those, we would have rejected them because we have no farmlands. We have no agrarian reform communities in Masantol. All that we have in the town are fishponds,” Viray said.

Salarda said he feared that he and the others would be held liable for the ghost project.

“We don’t want to be jailed. Our names were used. If we are thrown in jail for something we have no knowledge of, our families will surely suffer,” he said.

Mayors’ denial

Former Masantol Mayor Peter Flores said he did not know that such a project was implemented in the town.

The whistle-blowers said the four ghost projects in Pampanga were paid on Dec. 23 and 29, 2012.

Aside from KMFI, the other NGOs involved were Gintong Pangkabuhayan Foundation Inc. and Agricultura para sa Magbubukid Foundation (AMFI). AMFI proposed a P5-million project for Guagua under a P1.5-billion package.

In separate telephone interviews, former Mayors Leonardo Flores of Macabebe, Jay Sagum of San Luis and Ricardo Rivera of Guagua said they neither knew about the projects nor received anything for the farmers or for themselves.

In Aurora, former Baler Mayor Arthur Angara said he would ask local officials to check the town government’s files to confirm if Micro Agri Foundation indeed implemented a P5-million project in the town.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said the COA had not sent the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) a final report on its audit of the Malampaya funds allotted to the agency.

Agrarian Reform Assistant Secretary Teofilo Inocencio, then director of DAR in Central Luzon, said the Masantol project was “not coordinated” with the regional office.

In Pangasinan, Binmaley Mayor Simplicio Rosario denied receiving P10 million supposedly released by DAR, through an NGO, to his town in 2009.

Rosario said the COA wrote him before his term ended in 2010 about the fund. But he said he was surprised to learn about it because he did not receive the amount, which was supposed to have been released through Tanglaw para sa Magsasaka, an NGO.

He said he later found out that his signatures on the documents were forged. “How could I have signed a supposed memorandum of agreement without an authority from the Sangguniang Bayan?”

Not official letterhead

Rosario said the letterhead used in one of the documents was not the same as the official letterhead that he was using in his office.

“I have submitted an affidavit to COA at that time, telling them that we did not receive that amount,” Rosario said by telephone on Monday.

Former San Manuel Mayor Salvador Perez also denied receiving P10 million from an NGO called Kaupdanan para sa mga Mangunguma during his last term in 2009.

Perez, now the town’s vice mayor, said the COA also sent him a letter inquiring about the fund. “When I saw the attachments, I found out that my signatures were forged,” Perez said by telephone.

But he said his town was a recipient of various farm inputs and implements from then Pangasinan Rep. Conrado Estrella III.

In Ilocos Norte, former Dumalneg Mayor Francis Espiritu said he learned about the issue when the COA wrote him in 2009, asking him to explain if they had received funds from the pork barrel of former Ilocos Norte Rep. Roque Ablan Jr.

Espiritu, now the vice mayor of Dumalneg, said that his town did not receive pork barrel funds and that his signatures were forged.

More signatures forged

In Bulacan, Sta. Maria Mayor Bartolome Ramos said representatives of several NGOs and foundations approached him on several occasions in 2009 offering the town agricultural grants but he rejected them.

He said the Office of the Ombudsman called his attention after documents showed that he supposedly endorsed the fund requests.

Ramos said his signature was forged.

“What I know is that at least six towns in Bulacan faced the same problem, where the signatures of the mayors were forged to access the grant…. We have learned that our colleagues in Pampanga also faced a similar situation,” he said.—With reports from Yolanda Sotelo, Gabriel Cardinoza and Leilanie Adriano, Inquirer Northern Luzon; and Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon