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Friday, December 19, 2003
Witness in multimillion-peso scam in Sarangani gets death threat
By Benjamin B. Pulta
A WOMAN who accused provincial officials in Sarangani of running off with millions of pesos in public funds is fearing for her life after the Department of Justice (DOJ) failed to act on her plea to put her under its Witness Protection Program (WPP).
Mary Ann Gadian, a computer operator III assigned at the office of Sarangani Vice Gov. Felipe Constantino, earlier accused elected and appointed officials of the Sarangani Provincial Government of alleged involvement in multimillion-peso ghost cooperative projects in the province.
Her expose prompted a demonstration by a crowd of 8,000 last August.
Gadian said she and her family have been receiving death threats from unknown people since she filed graft and corruption charges against her superiors four months ago.
Gadian said she is being given a run-around for four months now by officials of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the DOJ with regard her request to be put under the WPP.
Among the officials whom she hit for ignoring her request to be put under the WPP were Justice Usec. Jose Calida and State Prosecutor Cielitolindo Luyon.
Last August, the Sarangani People's Action for Reform and Good Governance (Spar Good), composed of church people and religious leaders of various denominations, staged a demonstration and prayer-rally at the Capitol grounds to denounce what they described as "massive and systematic looting of public funds" in Sarangani.
Gadian and Sheryl Desiree Jane Tangan, both assigned at the vice governor's office, identified several provincial officials "as among those who participated in the alleged systematic and widespread looting" of public funds in the province.
In a sworn statement, Gadian claimed she was allegedly ordered by several provincial officials to divert funds using non-existent cooperatives and forge signatures of beneficiaries, an operation that managed to siphon at least P61 million in Capitol funds.
Gadian and Tangan were earlier charged before the Office of the Ombudsman for reportedly masterminding the multimillion-peso anomaly, prompting the two to hit back after reportedly receiving death threats.
The controversy resulted into the falling out between Escobar's camp and another political family in the area, the Chiongbians, who were behind efforts to create Sarangani into a separate province in 1992.
(December 19, 2003 issue)
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