Ex-NIA chief gets 8 years over botched dam project

MANILA, Philippines — Former National Irrigation Administration (NIA) administrator Carlos Salazar has been sentenced to up to eight years in prison in connection with a dam project initiated in 2009 without prior approval from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

In a 61-page decision promulgated on June 24, the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division found Salazar guilty of violating Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Salazar was NIA chief during the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Aside from being sentenced to six to eight years in prison, Salazar was disqualified from holding public office and ordered to indemnify the government P98.55 million or the equivalent of the amount of public funds illegally disbursed.

The court acquitted private respondent Ricardo Khan Jr., vice president of construction firm A.M. Oreta and Co. Inc., due to the failure of the prosecution to prove that he conspired with Salazar.

Filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2018, records showed that Salazar entered into a contract with A.M. Oreta on May 8, 2009 for the construction of the P712.37-million Libmanan-Cabusao Diversion Dam in Camarines Sur.

The ombudsman said the contract was awarded to A.M. Oreta without prior approval from the NEDA-Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) as required under Executive Order 230 or the reorganized NEDA charter.

The ombudsman said that two days after the signing of the contract, Salazar issued a notice to proceed with the project, allowing the A.M. Oreta to collect from NIA an advance payment amounting to P98.55 million.

The dam project, which was supposed to be constructed in the upstream of the Sipocot River, was called off following protests from local communities and environment groups.

In convicting Salazar, the Sandiganbayan cited the 2005 Revised NEDA ICC Guidelines and Procedures, which require all government projects or programs amounting to P500 million and above to undergo evaluation by the ICC.

The same guidelines also state that no project or program amounting to P500 million and above can proceed without prior evaluation and approval of the NEDA-ICC.

The decision was penned by Fifth Division chairAssociate Justice Rafael Lagos and concurred in by Associate Justices Maria Theresa Mendoza-Arcega and Maryann Corpus-Mañalac.