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Monday, September 26, 2005
P12M for group linked to Clavel
By Jeanette P. Malinao
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
REP. Clavel Martinez, who gave P12 million from her pork barrel funds to the Northern Cebu Development Center Inc. (NCDCI), is one of the organization’s incorporators and a member of its board of trustees.
While the Commission on Audit (COA) has asked the NCDCI to liquidate funds it received, records from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also show that the group’s registration was revoked in 2003 yet.
NCDCI was registered in 1995, when Clavel’s husband, Celestino “Junie” Martinez Jr., was still congressman.
In the documents Sun.Star Cebu obtained from the SEC, Clavel’s name appears first in the list of 10 incorporators, and is also on top of the list of the five-member board of trustees.
Cebu City Councilor Labella, a former director of the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, said public officials should be “more prudent” about this, considering the conflict of interest provision of Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.
In a telephone interview with Sun.Star Cebu, Labella said conflict of interest arises when a public official is a member of a board, an officer or a substantial stockholder in a business and when the private position tends to cause doubt in the performance of one’s public function.
Relatives too
He said conflict of interest is not even exclusive to the public official himself, but also arises when the recipients include relatives up to the fourth degree, whether by blood or by marriage.
“If you ask me, I think they should have been more cautious, more prudent, and should have looked into this more carefully,” said Labella.
“But whether or not there really was conflict of interest is a matter that should be looked into by appropriate authorities, Congress for the administrative aspect and the ombudsman for the criminal aspect,” he added.
Bogo Mayor Celestino “Tining” Martinez III yesterday said the name of his mother was included in the list only when the NCDCI was formed in 1995.
He said the NCDCI ceased to operate towards the end of his father’s term, or sometime in 1998, and was later revived but with a new set of incorporators and a new board of trustees.
“Wala na siya. Wa na ko kaila kinsay mga bag-o, (My mother is no longer in the new set) but they are mostly members of the community. But we still maintain the relationship,” Tining said in a telephone interview.
Delivery
According to SEC records, the purpose of the organization is to “deliver basic services and development that should reach out to the farthest barangays.”
It is also meant to “develop the potentials of the human being as a political individual, conscious and aware of his rights and obligations as a citizen.”
But COA had chided the Bogo Municipal Government for the P12 million that 21 organizations under the NCDCI failed to liquidate.
COA noted that the money from the Priority Development Assistance Fund was released without proper documentation, and so COA could still not determine whether the funds were indeed received by the beneficiaries, or whether these were properly used.
Tining has said that the NCDCI is already trying to comply with the liquidation.
“We already wrote a letter for it to comply with the COA (report), but we’re giving them time. We cannot also ask them to do it in a couple of days kay daghan man ni sila, but we demanded na,” the mayor said.
Only a loan
A cooperative that was listed to have P1 million in aid earlier complained to COA.
The Don Pedro Multipurpose Cooperative in Bogo has said that they only received P60,000 as a loan from NCDCI, and already paid in full, with interest, as of June 2004.
The cooperative, in a letter to COA, claimed it was surprised to see its name in the list of those who supposedly failed to liquidate the P1 million in financial assistance that they allegedly received.
The amount, which was from the congresswoman’s discretionary funds, was coursed through the Municipality of Bogo, and the town government also gave the money to NCDCI, which in turn distributed to its member-groups.
A memorandum issued to SEC Cebu Extension Office officer-in-charge Atty. Lorna Cubero, however, showed that the NCDCI’s SEC registration is “revoked.”
The memorandum came from the Atty. Gerardo del Rosario, assistant director of the corporate filings and records division of the SEC central office.
Paper trail
The NCDCI was delisted in November 2003, for its failure to comply with the required filing of reports, such as a general information sheet and annual financial statements.
A SEC employee said that NCDCI was notified of the revocation through a letter.
Tining said that he is not aware that the NCDCI has been delisted from SEC.
But he said that as far as they are concerned, the group is recognized by the municipality as an accredited organization.
NCDCI even has a seat in the municipal development council, he said.
(September 26, 2005 issue)
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