Lawmakers and local officials from Mindanao yesterday called on the Commission on Audit (COA) to conduct an impartial and in-depth investigation of the P10-billion allocation for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Lawmakers led by Davao del Sur Rep. Marc Douglas Cagas stressed the need for an audit to find out “if there is really a trickle-down effect” on the annual allocation for the ARMM.
“To be brutally frank, the warlords are getting their money from the allocation to finance their private army and purchase firearms. We have to scrutinize the budget of the ARMM. We have to check how the money is being spent,” Cagas said.
Cagas stressed a proper auditing and accounting of the funds would discourage local officials in the region from maintaining private armies.
“We have to do this so that there would not be another Maguindanao massacre. There should be proper auditing and accounting. The COA should have made an active auditing of the funds,” he said.
Sarangani Gov. Miguel Rene Dominguez supported the call for a full audit.
“We’d like to see an investigation to determine who should be held responsible for all of this mess,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez pointed out that a probe is necessary to pinpoint the source of the firearms and ammunition that were seized from the Ampatuan family.
He said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) should also take the initiative to find out if the firearms and ammunition seized from the Ampatuans came from their stockpile.
The officials noted the P10-billion annual ARMM allocation does not include the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) given to the regional government.
“At the end of the day, it’s the prerogative or discretion of the Chief Executive (on how to dispense the funds of the ARMM),” North Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Talino-Mendoza said.
Basilan Gov. Jum Akbar, whose province belongs to the ARMM, said they are contented with the way funds are being disbursed.
Sulu Gov. Abdul Sakur Tan, whose province is also under the ARMM, admitted he had no idea of the annual budget of the autonomous region, but confirmed the province is receiving funds nonetheless from the ARMM, led by Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan.
“This (funds probe) would be a very good opportunity for Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronnie Puno to put into perspective the situation in Mindanao,” Tan said.
Tan hinted though that there are reports that some government agencies are complaining about non-payment of salaries. He did not elaborate.
Probe ill-gotten wealth
Other lawmakers led by Senators Panfilo Lacson, Manuel Roxas II and Aquilino Pimentel Jr. called on the government to focus on possible ill-gotten wealth of the Ampatuans.
Lacson said the number of mansions owned by the Ampatuan family, among numerous other assets, would be enough to initiate an investigation.
He also questioned the source of wealth of the Ampatuans.
Lacson noted the total revenues of the ARMM amount to only P362.99 million a year, considering the region is among the poorest in the country.
He said the government must make sure that a single family did not use taxpayers’ money.
Lacson said the government could sequester the mansions and have the assets of the Ampatuans frozen for future seizure.
Roxas and Pimentel, for their part, said the Ampatuans should also be investigated for their involvement in election cheating that marred the 2007 elections in the region.
Roxas said it was important for lawmakers to determine the veracity of allegations that the declaration of martial law in Maguindanao was merely an attempt by the Arroyo administration to gag the Ampatuans from revealing their role in manipulating results of elections.
Roxas said the Ampatuan family members should appear before the joint session of Congress to explain why they are usually implicated in election irregularities in the region.
Roxas believed that the Ampatuans, who are known political allies of the administration, might have used government resources to carry out election cheating in Maguindanao and ensure the victory of President Arroyo in 2004.
Pimentel added the discovery of ballot boxes and other election paraphernalia in the properties of the Ampatuans shows that the allegations of election cheating have basis.
Bantay party-list Rep. Jovito Palparan, on the other hand, was quoted in a television interview as saying that the government armed the militiamen of the Ampatuans in the region to help fight the Moro separatists.
The retired general said the government authorized the arming of the militias in Maguindanao in the effort to prevent the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) from encroaching on the province.
“It was also a way of gratifying the Ampatuans for helping the government and the military to contain the MILF in the province.”
Palparan said the arming of the powerful Maguindanao clan is a self-defense against the MILF.
Palparan, who earned the moniker “the Butcher” from left-leaning groups for his anti-communist stand, however admitted the situation might have “gotten out of hand.” – With Aurea Calica