‘Gov’t yet to account for P32-B Malampaya funds’

MANILA, Philippines - Some P32 billion of the P170-billion Malampaya Fund is still unaccounted for, Rep. Terry Ridon of party-list group Kabataan said yesterday.

He said based on the testimony of Commission on Audit (COA) Chairman Grace Pulido-Tan before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee on Monday, out of the P170 billion, P33 billion had been released to various government agencies as of June 2013.

He said of the P33 billion, P900 million “has been clearly funneled to bogus non-government organizations” identified with alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.

“In other words, the government has yet to account for P32 billion in Malampaya Fund releases. We’re talking about an awful lot of public funds that have yet to be fully audited,” he said.

Ridon pointed out that while the P900 million was released to the Department of Agrarian Reform by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, part of the P32 billion still unaudited was disbursed under President Aquino.

In September last year, Malacañang announced that Aquino had authorized the use of the Malampaya Fund for 10 projects.

The releases included P3.6 billion for the fuel requirements of the National Power Corp., P450 million for the Pantawid Pasada program, P5 billion for “upgrade of capability requirement for 2011 relative to the security and protection of the Malampaya natural gas project,” P1.9 billion for barangay electrification projects, and P1.3 billion for the acquisition of two Coast Guard vessels from the United States.

“There are several projects in the list that are vaguely energy-related, such as the purchase of the US surplus warship by the military,” Ridon said.

He said the Supreme Court has ruled that the Malampaya Fund should be used only for energy development projects.

For his part, Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares said the fact that Arroyo and Aquino ordered the release of billions from the Malampaya Fund is proof that such fund is “presidential pork.”

This should prompt Congress to pass a bill requiring that Malampaya collections be included in the annual national budget and subject to scrutiny by lawmakers, he said.

“In fact, we already filed Bill 2993 placing the Malampaya funds in the General Appropriations Act. We urge the House leadership for its urgent approval,” he said.

The other allocations in the supplemental budget include P904 million for the Bureau of Treasury, P177 million for the construction of a VIP lounge at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, P250 million for the completion of the e-library and archives building of the House of Representatives, P196 million for fish ports, lighthouses and seawalls, and P40 million for rent for Philippine Institute for Development Studies. 

Slow pace

Sen. Nancy Binay, for her part, expressed disappointment over what she called the slow pace of the COA probe on the Malampaya Fund mess.

“The audit of the Malampaya Fund appears to be taking too long considering that releases were made as early as 2004 and they only reviewed this in 2011,” Binay said. She said she was surprised to hear from COA that the investigation is still in preliminary review stage, considering that “red flags” had been detected some eight years back.

Binay said Tan herself admitted that 30 to 50 auditors were involved in the Malampaya Fund audit.

In last Monday’s hearing, Tan turned down Binay’s request that she reveal details of their findings on Malampaya, saying COA, as a rule, does not disclose contents of an incomplete probe.

But Binay said COA was being selective in its release of information. The senator said COA officials did not hesitate to release information to senators regarding the Makati City Hall parking building project. – With Marvin Sy, Paolo Romero