3rd graft complaint filed versus Singson

Three in a row.

Former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson was slapped with a third graft complaint in the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday for allegedly diverting P24.7 million in tobacco funds to infrastructure projects and post-harvest facilities.

The complainants, Nestor Segismundo, David Roca and Liborio Arca, were the same ones who filed the two earlier graft cases against Singson.

Segismundo is the president of the Save Ilocos Sur Alliance (Sisa) while Roca and Arca are his officers.

Singson’s co-respondents in the new complaint were provincial administrator Ma. Victoria Cu, budget officer Erlita Arce and treasurer Antonio Gundran.

The complainants alleged that P24.7 million of the P200 million which the national government had allocated for a flue-curing plant was diverted to post-harvest and barangay facilities in 1998.

"It is elementary that since specific projects were identified in (the) special allotment release order, the proceeds thereof should only be disbursed for those specific purposes," they stated in their four-page complaint.

The SISA officers alleged that as of December 1999, disbursements charged out of the P200-million fund totaled P24.7 million, "in clear violation" of Republic Act 7171 or the tobacco tax law.

In the first graft complaint, SISA accused Singson and five other provincial officials of a "ghost" purchase of a P9.5-million backhoe loader in February last year.

The second complaint involved an alleged overpricing of a 26,693-square-meter lot which the provincial government bought in February 1998.

The property was allegedly valued at P2 million but was purchased at P24 million.

Singson has denied the allegations.