Pres. Noynoy, you are what your friends and allies are. Tigilan mo na ang wangwang nga Tuwid na Landas Mo. We can understand you na hindi mo kaya lutasin ang corruption sa term at sarili mo. Be yourself and stop being hypocrite. Sino ang maniniwala na ang isang Presidente ni bahid ng corruption ay wala? AQUINO ALLY IN NORTH COTABATO FIGURES IN PORK BARREL SCAMS September 7th, 2013 admin catamco pnoy President Benigno Aquino III’s strongest ally in the province of North Cotabato has been involved in the country’s most controversial scams – not once but twice. Rep. Nancy Catamco, who won the May 2013 elections under Aquino’s Liberal Party stands accused of being involved in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam which surfaced in 2004, as well as in the P10-billion pork barrel scam which Janet Lim-Napoles allegedly masterminded. Last May’s election campaign saw posters and tarpaulins across North Cotabato showing Aquino raising the hand of Catamco. Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas, another Liberal Party stalwart, joined Catamco in her campaign sorties in the barangays. Catamco was among the lawmakers who allegedly channeled their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to fake non-government organizations (NGOs) in partnership with the Philippine Forest Corporation (PhilForest), a government office under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) which has just been ordered closed by the President. A group of farmers in the province reacted to a recent story published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer saying the province’s second district got P9-million worth of jatropha seedlings locally known as tuba-tuba. Noli Lapas, chairperson of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-North Cotabato chapter, said not a single jatropha seedling was distributed to the farmers. “Wala man gyud na nag-abot ang PhP 9 million diri nga proyekto ambot asa na nila gidala, isa pa dili tuba-tuba ang among gikinahanglan kondili yuta alang sa mga walay yuta (That P9-milllion project never reached us. We do not know where it is. Besides, we don’t need jatropha. We want land for the landless.),” Lapas said. Lapas’ group and other peoples’ organizations in North Cotabato staged a protest action August 26 to express their support for the nationwide call to abolish the pork barrel following the exposes on its misuse for more than 10 years. Fund still intact In an interview with radio station dxND, Catamco admitted she gave P9 million from her PDAF to PhilForest for the production of jatropha as biodiesel feedstock but that project did not continue. She told another radio station, dxCA Charm Radio, that she would provide them with a copy of her letter to the Commission on Audit (COA) explaining why the project did not proceed. Catamco maintained the fund remains intact and will be used to buy coffee and cacao seedlings instead, which she said her constituents preferred to have. She was, however, unable to explain the current whereabouts of the money. Fertilizer fund scam Before news of the P10-billion pork barrel scam broke in July, Catamco had been charged with two criminal cases before the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman in Luzon for her alleged involvement in the questionable delivery of P5 million worth of foliar fertilizers in the first district of Palawan. According to documents obtained by the Watchful Advocates for Transparency and Accountability in North Cotabato (WATCH North Cotabato), a local anti-corruption group, Catamco and her former husband, businessman Pompey Perez, are listed as the owners of the Perzebros Company, a fertilizer manufacturer of Happy Farmers Liquid Fertilizer. The Task Force Abono Field Investigating Office of the Ombudsman named Catamco and Perez as respondents to a case under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. They are also charged with violation of Article 217 also known as Malversation of Public Funds and Properties. Former Palawan First District Representative Vicente Sandoval was also named as a respondent for allegedly endorsing Aaron Foundation as an NGO implementing partner in the fertilizer distribution project. Task Force Abono claimed the government did not accredit the Aaron Foundation and that the foundation was not even based in the areas where the fertilizers were to be distributed. Officials of the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Unit (DA-RFU IV) also face criminal and administrative charges because of their alleged involvement. Respondents include Regional Director Dennis Araullo, DA-RFU IV Technical Directors Gregorio Sanggalang and Balagtas Torres, accountant Raymundo Braganza, and cashiers Dory Iranzo and Grover Dino. Private respondents include Aaron Foundation president Alfredo A. Ronquillo and 11 of its officials. The transaction took place in April 2004, when Catamco was still a private citizen transacting business with government agencies in Manila and other provinces. The Ombudsman found enough bases to file the criminal charges against her and her alleged cohorts. “Evidently, the transfer of funds to Aaron Foundation and its purchase of supplies from fictitious Perzebros Company caused undue injury to the government in the amount of P5 million,” Gerhard Basco, Associate Graft Investigation Officer II of the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon, stated in the order. The complaint pointed out that Catamco’s Perzebros Company was not a licensed supplier and their product was not registered with the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (FPA) when the transaction took place. “It is apparent that when Perzebros Company became the supplier of Aaron Foundation for the farm inputs and implements, it was not yet given license by the FPA as a manufacturer-distributor of Happy Farmers Liquid Fertilizer. Moreover, said fertilizer brand was not yet registered with the FPA,” the order explained. Perzebros Company delivered the fertilizer on April 18, 2004 while the brand was only registered with the FPA on April 28, 2004. The company became a licensed manufacturer and distributor on May 17, 2004. Catamco recently admitted that the delivery of fertilizers came before the actual registration of their company with the FPA, but she shifted blame to government agencies that allowed them to join the bidding. “It’s not our fault. They admitted us, they qualified us at that time. It should be the DA who should explain why they admitted us,” Catamco told Pulsong Bayan (Pulse of the People) program aired over dxCA Charm Radio. She maintained there were no “ghost deliveries” as they were able to deliver products as promised. The Ombudsman’s Task Force Abono, however, claimed the Aaron Foundation also failed to submit the list of beneficiaries of the fertilizer project, thereby raising suspicion that the fertilizers were not actually distributed to the farmers. In its narration of facts, Task Force Abono said the fund paid to Catamco’s Perzebros Company was actually a fraction of the P728-million fund allegedly diverted by former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc Bolante to the 2004 election campaign kitty of former President and now re-elected Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The COA said in its audit report the fertilizer funds were released to a total of 105 congressmen, 53 governors and 23 mayors in March 2004, barely two months before the presidential and local elections. Sandoval was among them, receiving P5 million from the said fund. Sandoval and Catamco’s Perzebros Company became linked when the lawmaker endorsed the Aaron Foundation to be the project’s implementing NGO, and Perzebros as its supplier. PNoy told to probe his ally The Aaron Foundation also figured prominently in the latest scandal on pork barrel misuse. COA earlier identified it as one of the fake NGOs which siphoned funds from lawmakers’ pork barrel from 2007 to 2009. The Catholic Church and anti-corruption groups in North Cotabato have expressed concern over the involvement of Catamco and people behind Aaron Foundation in cases of misuse of millions of public funds. Fr. Pol Paracha, Coordinator of the Justice and Peace program of Diocese of Kidapawan, is calling on the Aquino administration to order an investigation and ignore the fact that Catamco is a close political colleague. “People seemed to have lost faith in those investigations. We had the ZTN expose and other issues. People are already frustrated that after the exposes those who were involved were not prosecuted and the issues just died,” he said in a radio interview. Sister Lalyn Macahilo, spokesperson of WATCH North Cotabato, is urging Mr. Aquino to be serious in his fight against corruption and pursue culprits irrespective of their political allegiances. “PNoy should be consistent. He should not only run after his political foes but foremost he should be running after his allies who are involved in anomalous transactions. It is a big challenge for him to reform the whole government system; the whole system contributes to the worsening state of corruption in our country.” the Oblate of the Notre Dame sister said in an interview. WATCH North Cotabato has already filed graft cases against 27 government officials and employees before the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao. None of these cases has been resolved. (This article was posted with permission from the Citizens’ Action Network for Accountability. The author is Program Director of dxCA Charm Radio in Kidapawan City.) By: Abner Francisco, Citizen Action Network for Accountability Share
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 01:01:03 +0000