GMA cleared in Malampaya Fund scam; Andaya, Napoles charged

MANILA, Philippines – Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales has ordered the filing of two plunder and 97 graft and malversation charges against former budget secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. and 25 others, including Janet Lim-Napoles, over the P900-million Malampaya Fund scam in 2009.

The Office of the Ombudsman dropped the charges though against former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former executive secretary Eduardo Ermita and Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) officers Dominador Sison Jr. and Nilda Baui for “insufficiency of evidence.”

It said the “complainants failed to prove that they (Arroyo, Ermita, Sison and Baui) conspired with their co-respondents in the illegal diversion of the P900-million Malampaya Fund or that they deviated from the regular procedure.”

In its 134-page joint resolution, the Office of the Ombudsman ordered the filing of two charges of plunder, 97 cases of graft and another 97 for malversation through falsification of public documents against Andaya; Department of Budget and Management (DBM) undersecretary Mario Relampagos; former DAR secretary Nasser Pangandaman, undersecretary Narciso Nieto and director Teresita Panlilio; former Candaba mayor Rene Maglanque and former Malacañang officer Ruby Tuason.

Also charged were Napoles and the officers of her non-government organizations – Jo Christine Napoles, James Christopher Napoles, Reynald Lim, Evelyn de Leon, Ronald Francisco Lim, Ronald John Lim, Eulogio Rodriguez, Simplicio Gumafelix, John Raymund de Asis, Rodrigo Galay, Alejandro Garro, Paquito Dinso Jr., Gerald Apuang, Napoleon Sibayan, Winnie Villanueva, Angelita Cacananta and Ronald Venancio.

All 25 respondents were found to be involved in the diversion of the P900-million fund after the DBM allocated and released it to DAR in 2009.

The money was malversed and coursed through the Napoles NGOs, which paid huge kickbacks and commissions.

Records show that on Oct. 8, 2009, Andaya submitted to the Office of the President a request for authority to use the Malampaya Fund for relief operations, rehabilitation and reconstruction of areas affected by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng.

Five days later, then president Arroyo issued Executive Order 848 authorizing the DBM to release the funds to DAR, which was to be the implementing agency.

On Oct. 22, 2009, Nieto requested Andaya for the release of P900 million to provide direct assistance to farmer-beneficiaries affected by the two typhoons.

The request for fund release was based on 97 purported letter-requests made by the mayors of various local government units (LGU).

DAR then downloaded the amount to several NGOs.

To facilitate the scam, Napoles instructed Galay to scan the letterheads of the 97 identified LGU-beneficiaries with De Leon, Lim, Jo Christine and James Christopher drafting the letters to make it appear that the mayors were requesting for financial assistance.

The DAR officials then prepared and issued 97 checks payable to 12 NGOs corresponding to the amounts indicated in the letters and Memoranda of Agreement.  

DAR officials thereafter informed Napoles that the checks were ready for pick up.            

After the receipt of the checks, the NGO representatives issued official receipts and fake liquidation documents such as reports of disbursements, delivery reports, certificates of acceptance, certificates of project completion, inspection and acceptance reports, fund utilization reports, independent auditor’s reports, reports of disbursements by external accountant and lists of beneficiaries.

The anti-graft investigators found all the documents to be fictitious after finding that there were no deliveries of agricultural kits or packages.

They also found the respondents to have manufactured the list of farmer-beneficiaries and forged the signatures of supposed recipients.

According to Ombudsman Morales, “The respondents’ intent and purpose show cohesion and interconnection, demonstrating the attainment of the same objective through their separate acts as each contributed in the end result of defrauding the government of the P900-million Malampaya Fund.”

She added that “by respondents’ own overt acts, they showed their undue interest in the immediate release of the funds… regardless of whether there was compliance with applicable laws or rules governing such disbursements.”

Although the former president was also implicated in the original complaint, Morales ruled that the complainants “failed to establish Arroyo’s link to it.”

“There was no nexus to the alleged commission of the crime of plunder, graft and malversation. Her participation there was to issue an executive order arising from Presidential Decree (PD) 910, which was issued by former president Ferdinand Marcos in 1976. She issued this EO 848 allowing the disbursement of funds to calamity-stricken areas because under the PD, the president can determine the purposes for which the Malampaya Fund can be spent,” Morales told reporters.

She clarified though that “if the probe of the Field Investigation Office points to the liability of Mrs. Arroyo, there is nothing that will prevent the (Ombudsman) office to consider indicting her, otherwise the dismissal of the case remains as is.”

Arroyo’s camp welcomed her acquittal, with lead counsel and spokesman Ferdinand Topacio saying “another baseless case filed against former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has bitten the dust.”

“Again, as in all other unfounded cases filed against her, the ground was insufficiency of evidence. This is an affirmation of everything we have been saying all along: that the cases against Mrs. Arroyo are mere political noisemaking, made purely for media effect by those who would profit to destroy her good name and besmirch her achievements as chief executive. Now the truth is beginning to come out, and the truth is that Mrs. Arroyo is blameless. Indeed, God sees the truth but waits,” Topacio said.

He added that “while we are happy that one by one, the fabricated cases against her are being thrown into the rubbish bin, we cannot be saddened by the fact that it has taken years of constant and unremitting toil by our family and our lawyers to gradually clear her name.”