DPWH personnel involved in scam banned from going abroad

The 20 officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and their civilian 10 cohorts implicated in the P134-million vehicle repair scam were ordered placed in the Bureau of Immigration’s (BI) hold departure list by the anti-graft court yesterday.

Justice Edilberto Sandoval, Francisco Villaruz Jr. and Efren dela Cruz of the Sandiganbayan’s second division issued the travel ban upon the request of government prosecutors led by Chief Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio.

The government pushed for the inclusion of the DPWH mid-level executives in the hold departure order following reports that many of them have either gone abroad or went on leave.

The accused, who are facing plunder charges before the Sandiganbayan, have not been reporting for work, some even way before the case was filed against them by the Office of the Ombudsman early this month.

President Arroyo earlier 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.

Several of the accused, however, went to media to deny they were in hiding.

One of them, erstwhile DPWH civil security chief Nelson Umali recently presented to reporters documents that he claimed will implicate the DPWH secretaries themselves.

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.

Being a signatory to the repair vouchers, Umali said he affixed his signature because he had been told the repairs were needed. He said he will seek a reinvestigation of his case.

To prevent the accused from evading prosecution, Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Minita Chico-Nazario earlier expedited the raffling of the case even if the anti-graft court docket section has not received the minimum requirement of five cases.

However, no warrants of arrest have been issued yet against the DPWH executives and their co-accused, all of whom are suppliers of auto spare parts who allegedly have conspired to charge the government a total of P134 million in spurious reimbursements.

The Ombudsman, through the Office of the Special Prosecutor, has recommended no bail for the release of the accused once the anti-graft court issues arrest warrants and takes jurisdiction of the plunder case, which carries a maximum penalty of capital punishment.

Villa Ignacio said the prosecution would move for the cancellation of the travel documents and Philippine passports of the accused who have fled for abroad. He said this move is the shortest and fastest legal route for their immediate deportation, which is summary in nature.

If the government encounters difficulty using legal strategies, Villa Ignacio said they will resort to the Philippines’ extradition treaties with countries where the accused may have sought refuge.

The process, however, is more tedious, he said.

The highest ranking DPWH official indicted in the irregularity was the agency’s motorpool chief Maximo Borje, who allegedly raked in P82.3 million, through more than 4,000 transactions from March to December 2001.

Villa Ignacio said this amount, which covered the alleged repair of 521 DPWH vehicles, meant that Borje was charging the government P375,000 daily, when the government could have bought brand new vehicles every couple of days.