Probers find three vehicles ending up in offices of senator, 2 others

Government investigators looking into a corruption scandal rocking the Department of Public Works and Highways have found three more DPWH-owned vehicles that have inexplicably found their way to other government offices.

A source at the department said one of the vehicles, a Mitsubishi Pajero with license plates PGP-586, was traced to the office of Sen. Ramon Revilla, who chairs the Senate committee on public works.

Another Mitsubishi Pajero, with license plates TLM-480, was issued to the secretary of the House of Representatives, Roberto Nazareno, while an old model Toyota Land Cruiser with license plates SCU-795 was issued to Capt. Oscar Mapalo, a security officer of former public works secretary Juanito Ferrer.

Ferrer served from 1987 to 1988, while Mapalo, whose whereabouts are unknown, is no longer connected with the DPWH.

"We are checking all the vehicles belonging to the DPWH and, so far, these three were found to have been issued to their offices," the source said, adding that they are determining if it was illegal to issue DPWH-owned vehicles to people not connected with the department.

The STAR tried to reach Revilla and Nazareno for comment but both were unavailable.

The source stressed that the three vehicles were not linked to a multimillion-peso corruption scandal involving 41 DPWH officials – including Undersecretaries Edmundo Mir and Mabini Pablo – and staff, accused of availing of over 7,000 vouchers totaling P150 million for bogus repairs on over 500 DPWH-owned vehicles and pocketing the money.

The vehicle repair scam, which authorities said began sometime in the 1980s, was discovered early this year.

Last week, an audit of the vehicles revealed that one car was inexplicably traced to the office of Agusan del Norte Rep. Edelmiro Amante and another to a Commission on Audit official assigned at the Senate.

Yesterday an Amante staffer who reportedly used the car, Antonio Bonito, claimed to The STAR that he returned the car last July 22 as his boss had ordered.

He also denied that the DPWH paid for any repairs and that Amante was involved. He said Amante, who briefly served as executive secretary of then President Fidel Ramos, got angry at him for getting him involved in the scandal. Amante is the deputy chairman of the House committee on public works.

Of the 500 vehicles that supposedly received repairs in the scam, 350 of them – including the vehicles issued to Amante and the COA official – were accounted for, while the rest are missing.

Administrative charges have already been filed against 11 of the 41 accused in the scam, while 24 others face administrative and criminal charges.

Yesterday, Pablo sought the dismissal of the administrative complaint against him, arguing that he was not implicated "directly or indirectly in the alleged wrongdoing."

He added that his position "did not even require for me to be furnished copies of any documents covering the transactions complained of."

"By virtue of a previous department order, said transactions, as a matter of standard operating procedure, are handled exclusively by officers at least two levels below me in rank and other lower-ranking employees," he said in his counter-affidavit to the charges.

"Command responsibility," he said, applied only to those "who have a more knowing, personal and deliberate participation in the transactions complained of."

"In my case, I was too far removed from the processes and transactions in question," he said. "If the concept of command responsibility is unreasonably applied, we’re afraid it would lead to the equally absurd conclusion that even the Secretary of Public Works and Highways should likewise be held liable."

Pablo and Mir were earlier suspended for 90 days upon orders from President Arroyo.