DPWH personnel linked to scam vow innocence

What scam?

Some of the 41 officials and employees of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) relieved over the weekend in the wake of the P150-million vehicle repair scam said they simply did their jobs by signing the dubious vouchers and that they never benefited from the anomalous car repair deals.

DPWH Secretary Simeon Datumanong said he would not hesitate to fire the department personnel implicated in the scam, if their involvement in the matter is proven: "Let this be a warning to all (DPWH) officials and employees that I do not hesitate to fire people just to effect the program of good governance in the DPWH."

Datumanong said this in a statement released to media along with two announcements of the relief of the personnel implicated in the scam in Department Order No.169, which contained 41 names, and Department Order No. 170, which contained only 34 names.

The relieved personnel were ordered to report to DPWH Assistant Secretary Salvador Pleyto "until further orders." The list of relieved DPWH personnel includes three members of the five-member panel that has been investigating the anomaly since January.

One employee whose name appeared in all three lists acquired by The STAR, DPWH administrative officer Amelia de la Rosa, said she, too, was a victim in the anomalies. The scam involved the exorbitant and numerous car repairs in 2001, many of which cost more than the repaired vehicles’ market value.

"I did not know that it was going to turn out this way," De la Rosa said. "We have long gotten used to just signing the bill for our car repairs, but I did not think somebody could be making money out of it. Believe me, I am innocent. I have nothing to do with this (scam). I only live a simple life and have only been doing my job for the last 30 years."

Another DPWH official, Comptroller and Finance Management Service chief Emily Tanquintic, sent an e-mail to The STAR though her son denying any wrongdoing. Tanquintic said in the e-mail that her years of faithful service to the DPWH prove her innocence of any wrongdoing.

Tanquintic, one of the members of the investigating panel, disputed the report that she was relieved of her post.

Tanquintic was ranked second on the list with the bold heading "to be reassigned" in DPWH Department Order No. 169 dated July 5 and in the memorandum to the President of Datumanong’s aide dated June 27 naming those "involved" in the vehicle repair scam.

The two other investigating panel members on the relief list were DPWH legal service director Oscar Abundo and Bureau of Equipment director Abraham Divina. The 600 vehicles involved in the scam fall under the jurisdiction of the BOE, while the reason for Abundo’s relief could not immediately be determined.

In an earlier interview, Datumanong said Tanquintic and Divina were signatories to the payment vouchers, although he admitted that they may have been swamped with too many of these documents and thereby not have noticed the anomaly. However, the DPWH chief vowed to remove them from the panel when it continues its investigation into the scam.

Datumanong also said the people involved in this scam seem to either have benefited from the DPWH’s long-practiced reimbursement scheme or have failed to perform their duty in preventing such irregularly expensive cash disbursements from taking place.