Senate body tags ‘ghost repair’ of 521 DPWH vehicles

A review committee of the Department of Public Works and Highways has identified 227 payees to the 7,000 vouchers for the fictitious repair of 521 DPWH vehicles.

Lawyer Irene Ofilada, former DPWH internal auditor and now department consultant, also told the Senate committee on public works headed by Sen. Ramon Revilla that their continuing review has uncovered that the "ghost" repairs involved a higher amount of P143 million and not just P139 million.

She submitted to the committee documents showing that two of the 227 payees accounted for P86.15 million. She identified them as Maximo Borje, the suspended head of the DPWH motorpool division with 3,459 vouchers totaling P66,047,921; and Danilo Planta, chief of the DPWH central equipment and control division, who had 847 vouchers for P20,111,828.

The other payees who allegedly received millions are: N. B. Umali, 253 vouchers, P5.898 million; J. Martinez, 271 vouchers, P5.29 million; Erdito Quarto, P4.938 million; C. Valdez, 205, P4.733 million, L. dela Rosa, 130, P2.788 million; A. dela Rosa, 135, P1.793 million; R. Agorilla, 78, P1.7 million; O. Isidro, 55, P1.24 million; and A. Palaypay, 49 vouchers, P1.125 million.

Previous to Ofilada’s testimony, Planta said he was surprised to learn that he was named the payee for the two checks involved in the repair of a Mercedes-Benz. The two checks, both signed on the same day, were for P24,900 and P24,850.

Sen. Noli de Castro was visibly irked when he learned from Ofilada that Planta was the payee not just of the checks for the Mercedes-Benz "repair" but for a total of 847 transactions.

"If you were the payee in only one transaction, you should be surprised, but you were the payee of 847 checks!" De Castro raged.

He also questioned why the cost of the "repair" of the Mercedes-Benz was split into two checks. It was explained that none of the 7,000 vouchers involved an amount higher than P25,000 so that they would not be subject to the approval of somebody higher than the assistant director of the Bureau of Equipment.

Ofilada said that Planta and others had signed a blanket authority to a supplier to receive the check from the DPWH cashier.