Lawmaker’s livelihood projects probed

TOBOSO, Negros Occidental—Antigraft investigators are looking into irregularities in the livelihood and seedling dispersal projects supposedly undertaken in four towns covered by the congressional district of Rep. Jules Ledesma IV in Negros Occidental province.

A three-man team from the Office of the Ombudsman went to Toboso town on Monday to get the sworn statements of village officials who were said to be beneficiaries of the project. Most of them have denied receiving seedlings and livelihood technology kits totaling P10 million.

Marton Cui, an aide of Ledesma (Nationalist People’s Coalition), on Monday said the lawmaker had yet to received communications from the Ombudsman and could not comment on the matter.

A document showed that at least 20 barangays from the towns of Toboso and Calatrava, as well as Escalante and San Carlos cities in the first district were recipients of seedlings and livelihood technology kits under a P10-million project implemented through the National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor).

These included 17,001 mango seedlings, 14,020 rambutan seedlings and 1,805 livelihood technology kits.

A list of beneficiaries by barangay typed out on the House of Representatives stationery of Ledesma bore the names and signatures of 20 barangay captains and the amount of seedlings and livelihood kits they supposedly received.

At the bottom of the document was the alleged signature of Ledesma.

Copies of the document were attached to subpoenas sent to Toboso barangay heads by the Ombudsman to appear before the probe team.

Florenio Escala, former barangay captain of Magticol, told the team that the village officials had not received any seedling or kit, and that their signatures were forged.

The antigraft investigators were in Escalante during the weekend. They were set to go to Salvador Benedicto and Calatrava.

On Sunday, barangay captains in Escalante also denied signing the documents for the projects that were allegedly distributed to them because they did not receive any.

Alicia Contiga, barangay captain of Dian-ay, told the Inquirer that the local officials were asked by the probers if they received soap and candle making livelihood projects in 2008 from the government.

They had not received any and did not know about such projects, she said.

Barangay captains Sabeniaro Saura of Hacienda Fe and Edwin Lagunday of Binaguiohan in Escalante also told the investigators that their villages had not received livelihood projects for soap and candle making.

Lagunday said his name on the project documents was Bowen instead of Edwin, and that his signature was forged.

The leader of the Ombudsman team refused to give his name and details of their probe, saying they were tasked only with verifying the signatures of supposed recipients of projects distributed in the first district.

A source in the antigraft office said the team was investigating numerous projects implemented in the first district of Negros Occidental over a period of time.

He said the team had asked the assistance of the Department of the Interior and Local Government in gathering the village officials of the towns and cities so they could verify the signatures on the documents.