Bunkhouse irregularities reports have basis–CIDG

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Reports linking a former election officer and an incumbent public official to the purported irregularities in the construction of temporary shelters in typhoon-ravaged towns in Eastern Visayas “have basis,” the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said on Wednesday.

Chief Supt. Benjamin Magalong, CIDG chief, said his office created a six-man special investigation team to assist rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson in looking into the allegations.

He said the CIDG agents had already flown to Tacloban City even before the supposed anomalies in the construction of bunkhouses came out in the media.

“I’m still waiting for the pieces of evidence that will be submitted. After that, we will determine the timeline of our investigation,” Magalong told reporters after the traditional “New Year’s Call” of police officials at Camp Crame.

“What we have right now are sources of information. But we will not summon anybody at this point,” he said.

Asked if the initial information gathered by the CIDG included the supposed involvement of a former election official and a politician, he replied: “Let’s just say that those allegations have basis.”

“For the meantime, I would rather not talk about it [because] that would be the subject of the investigation,” he added.

He also declined to say how the CIDG would conduct its probe, but maintained that his office had already started its “preliminary investigation.”

Director General Alan Purisima, chief of the Philippine National Police, said the manner of the police investigation on the issue would be based on Lacson’s formal request.

“We are still waiting for the formal request for investigation from [Lacson]. If the request was to investigate something criminal in nature, then that’s how we will go about it,” Purisima told the Inquirer.

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