Ombud to look into ‘pork barrel misuse’

CEBU, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman in Visayas will be looking into the alleged misuse of pork barrel funds of former Cebu City South District Rep. Antonio Cuenco by officials of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).

Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol said their office will be conducting a case building on the issue.

Earlier, the Supreme Court (SC) of the Philippines affirmed the findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) that held four officials of VSMMC liable for the alleged misused funds.

Named officials were Filomena delos Santos, Josefa Bacaltos, Nelanie Antoni and Maureen Bien.

The four were custodian and disbursing agency of Cuenco’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

SC referred the COA findings to the Office of the Ombudsman for “investigation and possible prosecution.”

Apostol said their office will be using newspaper clippings and decision of the SC as reference of their case building.

However, he said this is still subject for evaluation with their investigators.

Considering that  the incident happened in the Visayas, he said they have the sole jurisdiction over the issue but they will be coordinating with the COA in conducting the investigation.

“We will coordinate with the COA…There output will be the basis of our investigation,” he said.

Apostol said if probable cause is established that about P3.4 million was allegedly misused, the people behind may face a case of malversation of public funds and falsification of public documents.

Penalty for the administrative case is dismissal from service and imprisonment for the criminal aspect.

In order to avoid such incident, he said there must be monitoring to determine where the PDAF goes.

“Sana may monitoring kasi sayang ang pera mapupunta lang sa ghost projects then mapupunta sa private account. Kawawa ang Pilipinas bilyon-bilyon ang nawawala,” he said.

But Apostol said Cuenco will not be included in the investigation even if the funds came from his pork barrel.

The SC dismissed the petition filed by the officials of VSMMC questioning the decision of the COA that held them liable for the alleged purchase of anti-rabies drugs through falsified prescriptions and documents in the amount of P3,386,697.10.

“Their neglect to properly monitor the disbursement of Cuenco’s PADF facilitated the validation and eventual payment of 133 falsified prescriptions and fictitious claims for anti-rabies vaccines supplied by both the hospital and Dell Pharmacy, despite the patent irregularities borne by the referral slips and the prescriptions related thereto,” the SC ruled.  — (FREEMAN)