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Thursday, August 07, 2003
P61M in Sarangani coffers unaccounted for
By Edwin G. Espejo
GENERAL SANTOS -- An employee of the Sarangani Capitol claimed the Commission on Audit (COA) has uncovered P61 million in provincial finances unaccounted for amid the discovery of a large-scale fund anomaly early last month.
In a complaint she submitted to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Mary Ann Gadian, a computer operator assigned at the vice governor's office, accused 21 Sarangani officials of allegedly defrauding the local government of at least P6.8 million.
This reportedly did not include other releases facilitated by her fellow employees under the vice governor's office.
The provincial officials were allegedly headed by no less than Sarangani Gov. Miguel Escobar.
Gadian also implicated Vice Gov. Felipe Constantino, 11 Provincial Board (PB) members, three barangay officials, three department heads and two Capitol employees in the multi-million-peso scam.
The scandal, which involved funds intended for grant and assistance to cooperatives and non-government organizations in the province, reportedly started during the term of Escobar, Constantino and the present members of the Provincial Board.
Gadian also admitted she participated in the anomalous releases of government funds reportedly under the instructions of top local officials in Sarangani.
"I was an unwitting and submissive participant to all these anomalies," Gadian admitted in her affidavit.
She named Amelia Carmela Constantino-Zoleta as the one who allegedly instructed her to prepare documents and supporting papers to the alleged anomalous transactions.
She also claimed that the "key plotter" in the fund scandal is Provincial Board (PB) Member Margie P. Rudes, daughter of PB Member Juanito Purisima.
"The key plotter was Board Member Margie Rudes who was responsible for the entire scheme," Gadian revealed.
It was reportedly Rudes who allegedly instructed her to create dummies and "ghost projects."
She said some of the funds diverted and divested by the said government officials reportedly came from the congressional funds of Rep. Erwin Chiongbian.
Using dummies and non-existing names, Gadian, together with another employee under Vice Gov. Felipe Constantino, would accompany the payees of checks released to non-existing cooperatives and for ghost projects for encashment.
They would then turn over the proceeds to provincial officials.
Aside from Escobar and Constantino, Gaidan named PB members Hernando Sibugan, Redempto Abiso, Teodorico Diaz, Juanito Purisima, Pyang Singcoy, Marlind Marcelo, Cornelio Martinez, Eugene Alzate, Jesus Desedilla, Lilibeth Canillo and Margie Rudes as also involved in the irregular transactions.
Also implicated in the scam are barangay chairpersons Jaime Besmanes, Eduardo Rangel and Umbra Macagcalat.
The department heads named in her affidavit include Provincial Administrator Perla Maglinte and Provincial Accountant Maria Camanay and Amelia Carmela Constantino-Zoleta, executive assistant to the vice governor.
She also accused two other Capitol employees, Sherryl Desire Jane Tangan and Alexis Jude de la Cruz, both assigned to the office of the vice governor of involvement in the anomalies.
Gadian said she was one instructed to facilitate the release of P300,000 in public funds to finance the wedding of PB member Eugene Alzate, who got married several months back.
As this developed, Tangan, another Capitol employee who was implicated in the fund scandal, also filed a separate complaint accusing several provincial officials of illegally disbursing provincial funds and pocketing them.
Like Gadian, she admitted preparing proposals for ghost projects using Capitol funds.
"However, all these proposals were merely concocted by high ranking provincial officials of Sarangani...projects for which the funds were supposedly intended did not really exist," Tangan claimed in her affidavit.
She even admitted she was made to appear as the treasurer of Dthe atal Bukay Minority Development Cooperative, which some provincial officials allegedly used as cover to defraud the local government of P400,000.
Domingo Blatan, the cooperative's real treasurer, complained in June that they were ordered to liquidate the amount but that they never received it.
Blatan raised his complaint after he was ordered by COA to liquidate the money.
Gadian claimed she has in her possession documents, including photocopies of returned checks vouchers and copies of the proposals, to substantiate her claims.
A report said the hard disc of the computer where all the relevant transactions related to the anomaly were stored is now missing and may now have found its way to government investigators.
The multi-million-peso fund scam has already resulted into a falling out between the incumbent provincial officials headed by Escobar and the Chiongbians, political kingpins in the province. Sun.Star General Santos
(August 7, 2003 issue)
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