NBI probes P900-M fake SAROs for Laguna mayors

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is looking into the release of yet another dubious special allotment release order (SARO) worth P900 million for a supposed water treatment facility for mayors in Laguna province.

Malacañang had asked the NBI to investigate after receiving an anonymous letter alleging three supposed employees of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) were peddling fake SAROs to the mayors identified with the administration.

The DBM employees — identified as Edna Sumadlayon-Sagun, Erwin Esteban, and Marlyn Santuile — reportedly informed the local officials in August 2012 that the Office of the President (OP) has launched an “RO Mobile Water Treatment System.”

Each of the local officials is set to receive P45 million for the project.

“The fund was supposedly sourced from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and covered by SARO order no. BMB-G-12-T000001835 dated 20 July 2012 and Notice Cash Allocation (NCA) no. NCA-BMB-C-12-8002185 dated 20 November 2012,” read the document obtained by The STAR.

“The project involved the provision of water purification project machines to 15 local government units under the province of Laguna, listed in the attached NCA as follows: Cavinti, Famy, Kalayaan, Liliw, Lukban, Luisiana, Magdalena, Mabitac, Paete, Pakil, Pila, Rizal, Sta. Cruz, Siniloan, and Victoria. The provinces (of) Quezon, Bulacan, Ilocos Sur, and Benguet were also listed as recipients,” the document added.

The document bore the supposed signature of Undersecretary Mario Relampagos.

The Finance and Administrative Services Office of the OP said the document shown to the mayors “appeared to be fake.”

NBI’s check with the DBM showed the project code “is not for a PDAF project but is for a project of the Commission on Higher Education.”

The supposed DBM employees also do not work for the agency and Relampagos’ signature “appeared to be forged,” the NBI said.

“Thus, the supposed project and its funding as well as the documents submitted by the (anonymous) letter sender were fake,” NBI’s initial finding showed.

The finding was forwarded to the Department of Justice.

This was among the fake SARO cases being investigated by the NBI.

The NBI is also looking into the release of another dubious SARO worth P879 million for the mayors of Cagayan.

The SARO was supposedly intended for farm-to-market roads.

Denial

Meanwhile, Cagayan Rep. Baby Aline Alfonso yesterday denied any involvement in the fake SARO scam.

“This is to deny any illegal involvement in the alleged SARO scam in the amount of P161 million under Code No. B9644, Fund 101, and with barcode #SARO-2013-E01265B dated Oct. 10, 2013 signed by (Budget) Assistant Secretary Luz Cantor,” she said in a statement.

Alfonso said the SARO she saw “does not show anything irregular on its face.”

“If, as claimed by the Department of Budget and Management, the SARO was fake, there was no damage to the government because no money has been expended to implement the same,” she said.

She said she and her staff had no reason to believe that the SARO that they got hold of was spurious as it was given by a member of the staff of the House appropriations committee.

The committee’s employee allegedly got his copy from Emmanuel Raza, a member of the staff of Zamboanga City Rep. Lilia Nuño. Raza has reportedly gone into hiding.

“My chief of staff, Abraham Pelonio, in turn sent the document by e-mail to my district-based staff, Amador Enrico Arao, who in good faith, took the initiative to inform the regional director of the Department of Agriculture (DA) of the fact that my office has received a copy of the SARO,” Alfonso said.

She said the allegedly fake document “lists down several identified projects for each district of the five provinces in Region 2 to include Vizcaya, Quirino, Isabela, Cagayan, and Batanes, and certainly, it does not pertain only to my district.”

She revealed that the list included four projects costing P30.6 million that DA was supposed to undertake in her district and which were shown to her by agriculture officials during the hearings on the 2013 budget in August.

She said they were not surprised when they were given a copy of the allegedly fake SARO, thinking that projects in her district “are finally scheduled for implementation.”  -Jess Diaz