De Lima taps NBI in probe of non-‘pork’ scam

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) will look into the scam involving non-pork barrel funds amounting to P5 billion that was recently bared by two former officials of the state-owned National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor).

“I referred it to the NBI for initial investigation, and then it will be forwarded to the Ombudsman for possible preliminary investigation,” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said.

De Lima met with Nabcor’s former vice president for administration and finance Rhodora Mendoza and general services supervisor Victor Roman Cacal last week and discussed their statements about eight previous projects of the agency allegedly marred with anomaly.

“They will be executing additional affidavits. What they have submitted is the one related to PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) scam,” she revealed.

De Lima said she was told about the scheme, which involved overpricing of projects.

“The funds were supposed to be for technical studies, which were made to appear as assigned to NGOs (non-government organizations) when in fact the funds were deposited to personal bank accounts. It’s simply unbelievable,” she explained.

The justice secretary also confirmed that several other media personalities have been implicated in the scam apart from TV5 news anchor Erwin Tulfo and dzBB commentator Melo del Prado.

She added that Mendoza and Cacal have not yet applied for witness protection to become state witnesses in the imminent cases.

Earlier, the two former Nabcor officials said one of the projects involved P300 million in funds from the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) rice program in 2009, which was handled by Nabcor under the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Also covered by the new scam are projects involving post harvest facilities, Barangay Food Terminal and Agricultural Competitive Enhancement Fund.

De Lima already said the non-PDAF scams would be investigated separately by the Inter-Agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council from the scam allegedly perpetrated by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

Sen. Revilla leaves

The camp of Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. gave assurances yesterday that the senator, who is facing plunder raps before the Ombudsman, will return to the country after he left with his family for a brief vacation abroad.

Amy Manzo, the senator’s media relations officer, said Revilla would be on vacation at the Holy Land with his wife, Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla and their children and some friends.

Immigration officials allowed Revilla to leave the country because the senator has no hold departure order since the case filed against him is still under preliminary investigation at the Office of the Ombudsman.

The senator’s party left Manila last Saturday night, and vowed to return by April 12, Manzo said, amid reports that Revilla flew abroad to evade possible arrest once the Ombudsman finds probable cause of the plunder complaint and elevate it to the Sandiganbayan.

Revilla has been accused of pocketing P224.5 million in alleged kickbacks from his PDAF, which was uncovered by the Commission on Audit during an investigation on the pork barrel funds of lawmakers from 2007 to 2010.

The NBI later filed plunder charges against Revilla, Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada, several congressmen and government officials in connection with the pork barrel scam.

Revilla and his lawyers have disputed the claims, asking the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order on the ongoing preliminary investigation being conducted by the Ombudsman.

The senator’s group left the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on board Emirates Airlines Flight EK335 bound for Dubai then to Israel.

The family was accommodated at the Dignitaries’ Lounge prior to their flight that took off at 11:55 p.m.

Revilla had dismissed speculations that he was fleeing with his family prior to the release of his warrant of arrest for his involvement in the PDAF scam.

He vowed that he would return to face the charges.

Sen. Estrada also left the country bound for Hong Kong last March 26 on board a Cathay Pacific flight.

Meanwhile, Senate President Franklin Drilon said that Senate Blue Ribbon chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III has the last say whether or not the committee will wrap up its inquiry into the controversy where three senators were linked to the alleged multibillion-peso fund misuse.

“It all depends on Sen. Guingona. If he thinks that there is a need to call for hearings, then he can do that. Let us not forget that this (inquiry) is in aid of legislation,” Drilon said in a radio interview.

Drilon said the Blue Ribbon committee would have to determine whether it has gathered enough statements from resource persons in order to come up with a proposed legislation. “This is not a criminal investigation,” Drilon said.

He added that he is leaving it to the discretion of the Senate committee chairman whether or not he will conduct a hearing although Congress is on break until May 4.

Drilon made the statement a day after Malacañang said it is open to the proposal of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago to expand the inquiry by looking into the culpability of the heads of implementing agencies where public money was channeled.

Commission on Muslims

President Aquino has sounded clueless on the participation of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) in the use of hundreds of millions of lawmakers’ pork barrel funds.

“To be perfectly candid about it, there are so many functions embodied in their charter and I was not clearly aware or immediately aware that they were a conduit or an implementing agency for various PDAF projects,” he told reporters.

However, records show that the Muslim commission under the Office of the President had received a total of P611.5 million in PDAF in the first two years of its existence.

PDAF was the official name of the congressional pork barrel, which the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional last November.

The annual audit reports for NCMF of the Commission on Audit show that the agency received P96.5 million in 2011 and P514.7 million in 2012, for a total of P611.2 million.

NCMF was created in 2010 to replace the Office of Muslim Affairs. Its first head was Bai Omera Dianalan-Lucman, who served from March 2010 to April 13, 2012, when former elections commissioner Mehol Sadain was appointed to replace her.

The Muslim agency’s head has the rank of Cabinet member.

The 2011 annual audit report does not discuss how the P96.5 million in PDAF received by the Muslim commission were used. Neither does it list the lawmakers who allocated such funds.

It only lists the 15 SAROs (Special Allotment Release Order) the agency received and the amount of allocations.

NCMF received one SARO for P15 million, one for P12 million, one for P2 million, one for P5 million, one for P7 million, one for P1 million, one for P3.5 million, one for P10 million, one for P5 million, one for P6 million, one for P7 million, another for P5 million, one for P3 million, and two for P7.5 million each.   

The report shows that as of Dec. 31, 2011, NCMF had used P70.5 million of the P96.5 million in PDAF allocations.

The 2012 annual report is more extensive.

Auditors found irregularities in the use of the P515 million the agency received from Senators Enrile and Gregorio Honasan and 38 members of the House of Representatives, mostly belonging to party-list groups.

The funds ended up with foundations and NGOs, including some identified with suspected pork barrel scam mastermind Napoles.

Livelihood, training, seminars

The NGOs supposedly used the money for various livelihood projects, training and seminars for Muslim Filipinos.

“The audit team was informed that the concerned lawmakers were the ones who identified the NGOs/POs (people’s organizations), and not NCMF, as evidenced by the letters of the lawmakers to the secretary of the NCMF,” the report said.

The report classifies P25 million of the releases as coming from Malacañang’s controversial disbursement acceleration program (DAP), while the rest came from the now unconstitutional PDAF.

“It is our view that the selection of NGOs/POs should be undertaken by NCMF because the funds were released to NCMF, and therefore, the same agency is duty-bound to account for the funds to the government and/or beneficiaries,” the audit team said.

“The practice of allowing lawmakers to select NGOs/POs to implement the PDAF and DAP was not in accordance with COA Circular No. 2007-001. The selection should not be done by lawmakers but by NCMF officials having full responsibility over the funds released to them,” it said.

The circular governs the release of government funds to NGOs. It provides guidelines on the use of such funds.

The audit team noted that the memorandum of agreements (MOAs) signed by NCMF, the lawmakers and their chosen NGOs lacked certain requirements prescribed in the circular, such as “time schedules for the releases of funds, periodic inspection/evaluation, reporting, monitoring, date of commencement (of projects), and date of completion.”

It said many of the fund releases lacked supporting documents like contracts and purchase orders.

The COA report lists the 18 foundations, the lawmakers who gave them funds and the amounts released to these NGOs.

The NGOs and the amounts that ended up with them were Focus on Development Goals Foundation, P30 million; Livedures Foundation, P37 million; Kaagapay Magpakainlanman Foundation, P160 million; Maharlikang Lipi Foundation, P67.7 million; Rich Islas de Filipinas Foundation, Inc., P62 million; Kagandahan ng Kapaligiran Foundation, P25.170 million; Kabalikat sa Kalusugan Foundation, P17 million; Kaisa’t Kaagapay Mo Foundation, P3 million; Workphil Foundation, P1 million; Kaakbay-buhay Foundation, P3.5; Pangkabuhayan Foundation, P5 million; Coprahan at Gulayan, Inc., P14 million; BL Personal Touch Foundation, P11 million; UF Multi-purpose Corp., P1.1 million; and Kabuhayan at Kalusugan Alay sa Masa Foundation, P10 million.

The report also shows that Kapuso’t Kapamilya Foundation, which Sadain – who has denied his agency was involved in the ‘pork’ scam – claimed he blacklisted, received P64 million through NCMF from seven House members, including a party-list representative who gave it P37 million.

At least three of the 18 foundations are among NGOs that figured prominently in the COA special audit report on billions of PDAF disbursed between 2007 and 2009.

For instance, Kabuhayan at Kalusugan Alay sa Masa Foundation received P526.7 million, according to the special report, while Pangkabuhayan Foundation, which has been linked to Napoles, received P396.1 million. Some P107.5 million went to Kapuso’t Kapamilya Foundation.

Seven of the 18 NCMF NGOs were also linked to irregularities in the use of pork barrel funds by another government agency, Philippine Forest Corp., which is under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

President Aquino has ordered three Cabinet members – Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras – to look into the COA reports on NCMF.  With Jess Diaz, Christina Mendez, Rudy Santos