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Monday, September 13, 2004
Plunder: Sonny on P800M Cebu Capitol spending
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
CEBU CITY -- Former senator John "Sonny" Osmeņa accused former Cebu governor Pablo Garcia Sunday of plunder. He will ask the anti-graft office Monday to investigate the alleged illegal use of public funds to ensure the victory of Garcia's daughter Gwendolyn in the May 2004 elections.
"I am accusing (former) governor Garcia of the crime of plunder, which is punishable by death, for the expenditure of close to a billion pesos of provincial funds," Osmeņa told reporters in a press conference Sunday noon.
He said the disbursement of about P800 million of Capitol funds, "a lot of which was not authorized by the provincial budget of 2003, was spent by Garcia in the 2004 provincial elections to support the candidacy of his daughter and now incumbent Gov. Gwen Garcia-Codilla."
Gwendolyn won over Osmeņa's son John Gregory "John-john" Osmeņa in the May 10 elections. But the former senator was against John-John's gubernatorial ambition because he wanted him to run for Congress.
Now, Osmeņa, who once briefly allied with Pablo after the 2001 elections, threatened he will come up with more charges against the Garcias in the coming weeks.
"I'm supposed to be afraid? I'm trembling with fear in my high-heeled shoes," Gwendolyn said Sunday in a mobile phone interview.
However, Pablo said Osmeņa's move did not come as a surprise.
"He is consumed by his hatred for me. That's bitterness over his defeat as well as his son's," Pablo said.
But Osmeņa said there is no reason to get back at the Garcias for his son's loss.
"John-john ran against my better judgment. John-john, on Oct. 10, said he was preparing his support for the governor because I could not make him (John-john) win. Dili kuno ko kapadaug og kandidato. Si Garcia kuno mao'y makapadaug kaniya. John-john openly insolently, insultingly sided with Governor Garcia," he said.
John-john had accused the Garcias of dragging him in the Perdido Lex Foundation controversy and the smuggling of pseudoephedrine, issues that cost him his gubernatorial bid.
Osmeņa said when reports linking John-john to the smuggling of the shabu ingredient made headlines, his survey ratings dropped in a matter of days.
Although he planned to retire after results showed he was losing in his reelection bid, he said Sunday that it was "hard to stay away."
"This will mark the end of my brief retirement because in May, after the elections, I thought I was going to retire from politics. But it's so hard to keep silent with all these things going in the province and in the city," he said.
The former senator also attacked his cousin Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeņa over the South Reclamation Project.
He alleged Sunday that the Garcias used almost P500 million for dole-outs to selected barangays and municipal officials, public school teachers and other personalities under the guise of an anti-drugs education program and an anti-drug campaign.
Furthermore, about P300 million was allegedly distributed among selected towns and barangays to fund "nebulous projects, unsupported by programs of work and estimates and alien to any municipal or to the Provincial Investment and Development Plan."
In a letter to Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Primo Miro, Osmeņa asked the anti-graft office to check if the disbursements made immediately prior to the elections of 2004 violated Republic Act 7080 or "An Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Plunder."
He also wants to know if such acts violated RA 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards of Public Officials and Employees and the Revised Penal Code.
Osmeņa is also seeking a probe if the releases were done by the "inducement, direct participation and/or indispensable cooperation" of Garcia, as provincial governor then and now consultant of the office of the provincial governor, and Gwen, who was then consultant on systems, promotions, development.
Provincial Engineer Peter Madera, Provincial Budget Office Eduardo Habin, Provincial Accountant Marieto Ypil, Provincial Treasurer Roy Salubre and other provincial officials and employees may also be investigated for "acting upon his or her or their (the Garcias') orders and direction."
He said the release of funds from the provincial treasury in the later part of 2003 and in the early months of 2004 were for "purely partisan political reasons" to ensure Gwendolyn's victory.
Gwendolyn and her father allegedly conspired with the provincial officials and employees in making the "unwarranted, unreasonable, unjustified and illegal releases that bankrupted the provincial coffers and defrauded the province of Cebu."
The Garcias dismissed Osmeņa's move saying, "Everybody is entitled to his own entertainment."
"Well, when Sonny Osmeņa got defeated, I suppose he has allowed his imagination to run wild. Let us allow him to amuse himself and the rest of us with his own concocted imagination," Gwen said.
In a separate interview, Pablo said he welcomes Osmeņa's plan although he threatened to file counter charges against him.
"He is a desperate man. Mura'g nalisuan tingali," he said of Osmeņa, whose 40-year political career ended with his defeat in the elections last May.
He believes Osmeņa is acting out of bitterness for failing to get support for Philippine Councilors' League president Michael Miranda, who will be challenged by Consolacion Councilor Alfie Ouano, a Garcia ally, in the elections this Friday.
Osmeņa met with Miranda and Medellin Councilor Horacio Franco after Sunday's press conference at Café Adriatico in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City.
Garcia, who has been at odds with Osmeņa for years, said he made sure his 25-year record in public service is untarnished.
"I know my law well enough," he added.
Osmeņa said he has been asking the help of Provincial Board Member Gabriel Quisumbing to get information.
However, he was informed by Quisumbing, who heads the committee on budget and finance, that Garcia, then governor, had issued a memorandum prohibiting the release of documents without his knowledge.
Garcia said that as head of the executive department, he wanted to be informed of the release of records, since he was responsible for anything that would happen concerning Capitol.
The Commission on Audit (COA) had issued an audit observation memorandum citing that the Government Accounting and Auditing Manual prohibits the payment of honoraria to those involved in the anti-drug campaign "except those specifically authorized by law."
Garcia earlier pointed out that it was not a disallowance, only an observation. He said the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act mandates local government units to allocate funds for anti-drug campaigns.
However, Osmeņa, in his letter-request, said the anti-graft office could use its powers to subpoena documents, such as vouchers, contracts, receipts, payrolls, which are "until now hidden from public scrutiny" and ensure that the violators "shall not go unpunished."
Aside from pursuing the graft case against the Garcias and meeting with some of his former colleagues, Osmeņa is managing a farm in Negros Oriental.
He owns shares worth millions of pesos in Pamplona Plantation Inc. and had a house built in Dumaguete City.
(September 13, 2004 issue)
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