P15-B Malampaya funds not misused, says Palace

MANILA, Philippines - The P15 billion in Malampaya funds used by President Aquino may have been only slightly less than the P20 billion spent by his predecessor over a nine year period, but not a single centavo of the money had gone to waste under the current administration, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said yesterday.

She refuted The STAR report that Aquino had spent P15 billion of the fund from 2011 to 2012 alone. “That is from the time that the President has assumed office (in 2010),” Valte said.

But figures provided to Malacañang reporters showed it was really from 2011 to 2012 that the amount was spent.

“At this point, you look at how the funds are spent or if there is any misuse,” she said.

“As far as we know, charges have already been filed against certain respondents in connection with the Malampaya Fund scam,” she said, referring to plunder charges filed against Arroyo for alleged misuse of Malampaya funds.

In 2011, the government allotted P2 billion for the fuel requirement of Napocor’s small power utilities, P450 million for the Pantawid Pasada program for public utility vehicles, and P423 million for the acquisition of a Hamilton-class coast US guard cutter.

Around P1.6 billion was used to cover fuel requirement and rental of generator sets, P4.9 billion for the upgrading and capability requirements of  the Malampaya project, P814 million for sitio (village) electrification and P3 billion for missionary electrification.

In 2012, P1.1 billion was allotted for barangay line enhancement and sitio electrification projects, while P880 million was released to cover the transfer, dry-docking and periodic hull maintenance costs of the Navy cutter.

In all, as per figures provided by the office of presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda, the government had used P15.2 billion from the multibillion-peso Malampaya funds for various energy-related projects.