Ex-Cabinet men to be charged today over Malampaya fund scam

MANILA, Philippines - Former Cabinet members will be charged  today by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the P900-million Malampaya fund scam, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday.

De Lima refused to name names, but earlier reports said that former agrarian reform secretary Nasser Pangandaman was among those implicated by the whistle-blowers in the scam.

“I cannot say at this point (the names of the respondents) because sometimes there could be last-minute changes,” she said.

The NBI is finalizing the complaint and supporting documents, De Lima said.

However, unlike the complaint involving the P10-billion pork barrel scandal, the justice secretary said no lawmaker would be charged for the misuse of the Malampaya funds.

“Everything in this case involves ghost projects, ghost deliveries. There are no lawmakers, but there are government agencies involved in the Malampaya scam,” De Lima said.

Levito Baligod, lawyer of whistle-blower Benhur Luy, said detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles used the same scheme in the pork barrel racket in amassing millions of funds from the natural gas project.

Baligod disclosed that Napoles used 12 bogus non-government organizations (NGOs) in the scam.

But he admitted that the whistle-blowers are not privy to whether or not government officials pocketed kickbacks from the Malampaya funds.

“That information would be up to Napoles and heads of NGOs to explain. If there is really no public official involved, then the case would be malversation of public funds by private individuals,” Baligod explained.