No SARO release – DBM

MANILA, Philippines - Government coffers didn’t lose a single cent from the reported spurious P879 million worth of special release allotment orders (SARO) that were allegedly about to be released to implementing agencies, a Cabinet official clarified yesterday.

“I think the very first clarification is there was no release,” Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said. “Was there any money that was lost as a result of this? There was none because it was just a SARO that was forged, which was not released at all.”

The Department of Budget and Management chief said the SARO racket was in fact thwarted last Oct. 22 when the DBM director assigned to the Department of Agriculture inquired about the release of farm-to-market SAROs in Region 2.

Abad said such SAROs or the amount allocated for a project have neither been released nor signed by then (DBM) assistant secretary Luz Cantor, who was promoted and is now holding the rank of undersecretary.

The total amount covers 12 SAROs.

“We got all the documents and looked at the so-called signed SAROs and concluded very clearly that these were forgeries because we have the originals, which were not signed and had not been released (to the agencies),” Abad recalled.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, who attended the briefing after he and Abad explained the issue to President Aquino, gave the same assurance as well that not a single SARO was released.

“Secretary Butch (Abad) was right in saying that no money was released,” the DA chief told Palace reporters.

“In fact, the proof of this is we discovered this (scam) because of better coordination between DBM and DA,” said Alcala.

In proving it was government that foiled the attempt, Abad disclosed that he even wrote acting director Medardo de Lemos of the National Bureau of Investigation to seek an investigation on the case, the day after they found it out or last Oct. 23.

“And similarly on that day, Oct. 23, we cancelled all the 12 SAROs that had been prepared but were not released nor were they signed by the authorized signatory, who was assistant secretary Cantor,” he narrated.

The NBI is now conducting an investigation on the matter.

“Just wait for the NBI to finish its findings because we certainly would have been open to informing the public about the results of the NBI findings, but not in the middle of the investigation,” Abad said.

“Our objective was to make sure that the investigation being undertaken by the NBI will proceed as effectively as possible, and also, to make sure that those who perpetrated these forgeries would not be informed very publicly that such an investigation is taking place, but it’s already out there in the media,” he said.