Sajid Ampatuan charged over Maguindanao ghost projects

Datu Sajid Islam Ampatuan, one of the suspects in the Maguindanao Massacre, is facing 161 criminal charges at the Sandiganbayan over various “ghost” projects and procurement anomalies when he was officer-in-charge of the province in 2009.

The government allegedly lost roughly P95.62 million in road and school projects which were not implemented as the funds earmarked for materials were allegedly misused.

The charges filed by Ombudsman prosecutors, which run 483 pages thick, stated that the irregularities took place between February and September 2009.

Ampatuan’s camp broadly denied the Ombudsman’s allegations.

“We claim that all those contracts or procurements passed through the regular processes of procurement, bidding and audit,” the Ampatuan camp said through lawyer Gregorio Marquez.

His camp described the indictment as “mere allegations.”

In the Sandiganbayan, officer-in-charge provincial engineer Landap Guinaid was named coaccused in all of the 161 cases. He was killed last July 28 in an ambush.

Another major defendant is former provincial administrator Norie Unas, who is now implicated in 145 cases.

The first set of 16 charges were filed over the fabrication of statements of work accomplished for eight unimplemented infrastructure projects valued at P23.36 million.

After the SWAs were approved from March to August 2009, the provincial government proceeded to award P22.37-million worth of contracts to a gas station owned by Datu Andal Ampatuan Jr. without public bidding. —VINCE F. NONATO