New SPDA chief rejects 600 loan applications

DAVAO CITY — The newly installed administrator of the Southern Philippines Development Authority (SPDA) has turned down over 600 pending loan applications which are believed to have been filed by dubious cooperatives and individuals.

"These loan applications no longer have any chance of approval. Most of their proponents are actually non-existent," SPDA administrator Zamzamin Ampatuan told The STAR.

Ampatuan said they discovered that poverty alleviation funds amounting to nearly P45 million that were released as loans between July and October this year, were actually utilized to purchase the high-powered firearms which the renegade forces of former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman Nur Misuari used in their recent attacks in Jolo, Sulu and Zamboanga City.

Most of the loan applications were for supposed projects in Sulu, Zamboanga and other areas in Western Mindanao.

"These loan applications were really dubious," Ampatuan said, disclosing that their folders had pre-signed receipts even if the loans were not yet granted.

Meanwhile, Ampatuan terminated the services of 51 consultants whom his predecessor hired.

The consultants, he said, were receiving a minimum of P7,000 a month even if they were "not doing anything."