MANILA, Philippines - Former Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. is unfazed by the Senate’s move to file plunder charges against him over his alleged involvement in the misuse of P60.5 billion in the Road Users’ Tax fund.
Ebdane said he is not guilty of any irregularity and the raps against him would not affect his presidential bid as long as he is given the opportunity to air his side.
“I believe that I have high credibility because I do not make promises. I always tell the truth even if it hurts,” Ebdane told reporters yesterday.
Ebdane said he was not connected with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) yet when the alleged anomaly happened.
“My conscience is clear. Do not make me answerable for anything when I was not around yet,” Ebdane told reporters in another interview in Davao at the launching of the Abante Tribung Makabansa (ATM) party-list of tribal groups under the Mindanao Indigenous People’s Conference for Peace and Development (MPCPD).
He said probers should take into consideration that he was temporarily transferred as head of the Department of National Defense (DND) from February to June of 2007 and should not be held liable if there was any irregularity committed during that time.
At that time it was Senior Undersecretary Manuel Bonoan who took over as head of the DPWH.
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, in her sponsorship at the Senate last Monday, said Ebdane, as ex-officio chairman, should explain the issues raised by the Commission on Audit (COA).
She was particular about what she described as the “unusually large amount of allotments that were obligated in 2007, an election year,” amounting to P21.9 billion.
“I was the Secretary of National Defense from February to June 2007, so I could not be involved in any allotment of the Road Board during the election period,” Ebdane said.
He also said that they have already furnished the Senate, House of Representatives and the Office of the President copies of their supporting documents to help shed light on the allegedly misused funds.
Ebdane said every transaction or any disbursement of the Road Board when he became ex-officio chairman was well documented.
Former Road Board executive director Dodie Puno, for his part, denied Santiago’s allegations, saying he was not authorized to allocate and disburse funds for the projects.
“Sen. Santiago is fully aware that it was beyond my authority to allocate and disburse funds for projects. So why would I be singled out and included in any recommendation for plunder charges?” Puno said.
He clarified that he has never been a member of the Road Board but he served as its executive director from Jan. 10, 2005 to April 20, 2008, acting in an ex-officio capacity as Board secretary.
He lambasted Santiago for hiding under the cloak of parliamentary immunity when she attacked him over the alleged misuse of the multibillion-peso road fund since 2001.
“It is unfortunate that Sen. Santiago has abused the privilege hour and hidden behind the cloak of parliamentary immunity from suit to engage in gossip and character assassination,” Puno said in a statement sent through his executive assistant, Fides Macalindong.
Puno is abroad and will return to Manila next week.
“Her tale of my alleged ownership of two yachts, luxury condominiums, expensive cars, and a Boracay house is untrue, as any simple check of the facts will prove,” he added. “She is even wrong about such basic facts as my civil status, which is single.”
“I look forward to being given the chance to prove my innocence in the proper forum, which is the court of law,” he added.
Dodie and his brother, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, were linked by Santiago to the misuse of the Road User’s Tax, calling it a “scandal in the family” in her sponsorship speech last Monday at the Senate.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) came to the defense of its chief, saying he merely inherited from his predecessor the project in the department.
DILG Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Brian Yamsuan said the records in the department would show that the DILG has been implementing the Out-of-School Youth Serving Toward Economic Recovery (OYSTER) program even before Puno was appointed to the DILG.
Santiago: No word war with Puno brothers
Meanwhile, Sen. Santiago said yesterday that she does not want to engage in a futile word war against brothers Dodie and Ronnie Puno, saying it was a waste of her time.
“I am not going to wage a word war with him in the media because he will be serving his own entertainment needs. I will not accommodate him,” Santiago said, reacting to the comment of Ronnie Puno that all her accusations are baseless.
Santiago said the Puno brothers should face the Senate because the issue now has the support of 23 senators.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Ombudsman said it was ready to review the Senate’s recommendation for plunder charges against Ebdane, Puno and Danilo Valero of the board secretariat.
Assistant Ombudsman and spokesman Jose de Jesus Jr. said the Senate economic affairs committee report on the alleged misuse of the Road Users’ Tax will be reviewed and evaluated.
“And if we find the same sufficient in form and substance to conduct preliminary investigation and administrative adjudication, we will proceed accordingly,” he said.
“Otherwise, our Field Investigation Office will validate and, if warranted, act as the nominal complainant,” De Jesus told The STAR.
Malacañang also supported the Senate’s move to file plunder charges against Ebdane, Puno and other involved officials of the Road Board.
Deputy Presidential Spokesman Anthony Golez said there was no official word yet on whether President Arroyo would impose some form of administrative sanction on Valero.
He said the Palace would let the Senate take the lead in pushing the case since it was the one that initiated the investigation.
Meanwhile, a former member of the Road Board said it was the DPWH and the DILG that recommended and implemented the bulk of the P60-billion Road Users’ Tax during the past several years and not the Road Board.
Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) chair Alberto Suansing, a former Road Board member representing the private sector, told The STAR in an interview that majority of the requests for project funding came from the DPWH and the DILG.
He was a senior member of the board in 2007 until his appointment as chief of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in January 2008.
Suansing said the Road Users’ Tax is collected by the LTO and remitted to the national treasury, but the request for funding is made by the DPWH on national projects, DILG for local roads and the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) on the environment protection program which is part of the expenditures for the road fund.
He said, however, that after the board approved certain projects it would be up to the agencies concerned, including the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), to carry out the release and implementation of the project.
“The Road Board does not talk to contractors, it’s the agencies which conduct the bidding and the implementation of the projects,” Suansing said, adding that the function of the board is simply ministerial.
Contractor bags P1.5-B Road Board projects
A contractor based in San Juan, Metro Manila has bagged P1.547 billion worth of road projects from the controversial Road Board headed by Ebdane.
Documents submitted to the House of Representatives showed that Meditech Trade and Development Corp. was awarded the contracts in less than two years, starting from early 2007 up to the middle of last year.
Meditech, a single proprietorship, is reportedly owned by a certain John Tansipek.
Its P1.5-billion contracts were concentrated in the second, third and fourth districts of Isabela, and in the first and second districts of Bataan. They were mostly for “pavement markings” and “guardrails.”
There were reports that Meditech also cornered similar projects worth nearly P2 billion in Nueva Ecija and Laguna.
Several congressmen have denounced what they described as the inequitable distribution of Road Board money, which is generated from the annual registration fees of motor vehicle owners.
Most of Meditech’s contracts are for less than P20 million each but are for a short duration of three months to four months. – With Christina Mendez, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Jess Diaz, Paolo Romero and Perseus Echeminada