Ombud ends probe on Roa's P.5M but Santiago refuses to divulge contents of report pending approval

CEBU, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas’ fact-finding team already completed its investigation on the reported illegal release of P500,000 to former Department of Tourism regional director Patria Aurora Roa.

The amount was her severance pay for serving 15 years as member of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) board.

Assistant Ombudsman for the Visayas Virginia Palanca-Santiago said the investigator is in the stage of preparing the draft report for review.

They were only waiting for the Commission on Audit (COA) report ordering the board to reimburse the amount so they could resolve the complaint, and the investigator was already able to get hold of this.

The COA ordered the MCIAA board composed of Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, former Mactan Airport general manager Danilo Augusto Francia, Alfonso Cusi, Maria Lourdes Dedal, Valeriano “Bobit” Avila, Gordon Alan Joseph and Winglip Chang to reimburse the P500,000 that was released to Roa last July 7, 2010.

The supervising auditor assigned to the Mactan Cebu International Airport, Anecita Pilapil, explained that the release was made without legal basis and is prohibited under the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Circular Letter 2002-02.

The DMB states that “Department Secretaries, Undersecretaries and Assistant Secretaries, who serve as ex-officio members of the Board of Directors of government corporations are not entitled to any remuneration in line with the Supreme Court ruling that their services in the board are already paid and covered by remuneration attached to their offices.”

However, MCIAA former general manager Danilo Augusto Francia insisted that the granting of such benefit to Roa was legal, citing the provisions of Republic Act 6958 or the law that created the MCIAA Charter.

Francia claimed that under the Charter, one of the functions, powers and duties of MCIAA is “to exercise all powers of a corporation” under the Corporation Code.

He cited Section 36 of the Corporation Code of the Philippines that allows corporations to establish pension, retirement and other plans for the benefit of its directors, trustees, officers and employees.

Meanwhile, Santiago said that after they review the draft report, it will be given back to the investigator for the formal report. If they find enough evidence of irregularity, the matter would be upgraded for preliminary investigation.

However, Santiago said if the investigator did not find any probable cause, the investigation will be terminated. (FREEMAN)