This way, some of the accused who have reportedly fled the country will face deportation, Chief Prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio said.
Deportation proceedings are "summary in nature" and provide the shortest and fastest legal route available, the chief prosecutor pointed out, in reaction to The STAR report Tuesday that several of the 20 officials and employees of the DPWH charged recently with plunder over the scam are said to have left for abroad. The others are unaccounted for.
Villa Ignacio, however, admitted he has yet to get the names of the DPWH officials and employees who allegedly took off, but is confident the law will ultimately catch up with them.
"We will have their passports and travel documents canceled so that they will eventually be declared undocumented aliens," Villa Ignacio told The STAR.
He said this move would be the most feasible at this point since no arrest warrants have yet been issued by the Sandiganbayan.
"We will avail of this (legal) shortcut first. Then, if we don’t succeed we might opt for extradition," Villa Ignacio said.
The Ombudsman filed plunder charges last Friday against the 20 DPWH officials and ten private individuals, all suppliers of vehicle spare parts. The case stemmed from the alleged P134-million "ghost" and exorbitant repairs of DPWH vehicles, which were exposed by The STAR last year. In some instances, department funds for other uses were diverted to cover the cost of repairs.
President Arroyo vowed to bring to the bar of justice the DPWH officials accused of plundering government funds.
The President has directed the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other law enforcement agencies to locate the accused government executives and their cohorts.
"We will not allow the corrupt to evade justice," the President said in an official statement issued at the Palace yesterday. "Those who may have absconded abroad shall be subject to extradition procedures where applicable."
Mrs. Arroyo, however, did not say if she had called the attention of DPWH acting Secretary Florante Soriquez to explain why several of the accused could not be accounted for.
DPWH Undersecretary Rafael Yabut earlier admitted they have yet to account for the 20 officials and employees charged along with the accused DPWH suppliers.
Some of those charged have gone on leave while at least one is known to have fled abroad, according to Camilo Foronda, chief of the DPWH legal department.
A source has said at least one DPWH official charged in the scam took off for another country as early as last December.
But while prosecutors claimed to have the goods on the middle-level DPWH executives, the accused seem to have something up their sleeve.
Erstwhile DPWH civil security chief Nelson Umali yesterday came up with his own documents that could implicate the DPWH secretaries themselves.
Umali is one of the 20 DPWH officials whose whereabouts are being traced by prosecutors. He said he is only in hiding for the meantime until he is ready to defend himself before the court.
At the center of the case is DPWH motorpool chief Maximo Borje, who made reimbursements 700 times during that period estimated to be worth P375,000 daily, the chief prosecutor said.
Umali presented 14 memorandum of receipts for DPWH vehicles said to have been used by the department’s Office of the Secretary between 1989 and 2001.
Umali admitted to signing the required papers, but pointed out the repairs were requested by the "real end-users" in the Office of the DPWH Secretary.
A total of 521 vehicles were allegedly involved in the scam with some 9,000 repair vouchers.
Prosecutors have maintained there is overwhelming evidence to hold the DPWH officials accountable for the alleged scam.
Being a signatory in repair vouchers, Umali is said to be responsible for the disbursements of P7 million for vehicle repairs in the department in 2001 alone. It was alleged that the repairs were either "ghost" or non-existent, exorbitant or repetitive, resulting in huge expenses for the government.
As head of the DPWH civil security division, Umali said the vehicles assigned to the Office of the DPWH Secretary were placed under his name.
He said the requests for repairs coming from the Office of the DPWH Secretary were approved by the DPWH Bureau of Equipment motorpool.
"I am not a mechanical engineer. I was told that the requested repairs were needed so I had to sign (the repair vouchers)," Umali said. "I will seek a reinvestigation of my case."
As this developed, former DPWH Bureau of Equipment director Abraham Divina Jr. denied they were found liable for the vehicle repair scam by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC).
The Ombudsman had earlier cleared Divina along with former DPWH finance department chief Emily Tanquintic and former legal department chief Oscar Abundo for lack of evidence.
Earlier, two DPWH undersecretaries Mabini Pablo and Edmund Mir were also cleared of any criminal liability.
Villa Ignacio has said they will file a motion for the case to be assigned immediately to a division of the anti-graft court to pave the way for the issuance of a hold-departure order and arrest warrants against the respondents.
Mrs. Arroyo assured the public that all of the implicated government officials "will be accounted for as soon as the arrest warrants are issued against them."
Government prosecutors also earlier said they will move to confiscate all the assets and properties acquired by all 30 accused in the scam, including bank deposits.
"Their assets should be frozen. We will move for the garnishment of their properties," Villa Ignacio said.
Graft and corruption in Philippine government, according to the President, has long been an endemic problem even before she took office in January 2001.
Mrs. Arroyo was Vice President when she was shoved to the presidency after then President Joseph Estrada was ousted by a peaceful uprising amid charges of plunder and bribery hurled against him. Mrs. Arroyo is seeking a full six-year term in the coming May 10 election.
Mrs. Arroyo, an economist, strongly took exception to the ranking of the Philippines as the fourth most corrupt country in Asia where the graft perception in government has worsened, according to a 2003 survey of foreign business executives in the Singapore-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC). — With Jose Aravilla, Marichu Villanueva