Dinagat Islands caretaker bought six SUVs worth P9 M

MANILA, Philippines - Rep. Kaka Bag-ao, caretaker of the lone district of Dinagat Islands, has bought six sport utility vehicles (SUVs) out of the pork barrel funds released to the constituency of fugitive former congressman Ruben Ecleo Jr.

Records show that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released a total of P137.4 million to Ecleo’s district last year upon representation of Bag-ao, whom the House had appointed as caretaker.

Bag-ao is running in May’s congressional elections to succeed Ecleo. She belongs to the party-list group Akbayan, whose key members President Aquino has appointed in high places in his administration. She traces her roots to Loreto town in Dinagat Islands.

Ecleo had been convicted of parricide for killing his wife and of graft in connection with fund irregularities during his term as a town mayor. The authorities have supposedly been hunting him down, but he has eluded them.

The 2012 releases included Ecleo’s full-year P70-million pork barrel fund for 2011, which had not been released that year. The releases were made in just two weeks, between Dec. 4 and 19.

The first disbursement on Dec. 4 amounted to P30 million, of which P9 million Bag-ao allocated for the purchase of “six 4x4 utility vehicles costing P1.5 each and with an engine displacement of 2.5 liters.” The vehicles are for Tubajon town.

The 4x4 vehicles in the P1.5-million price range and with 2.5-liter engines included the Mitsubishi Montero, and Toyota Hilux and Fortuner SUVs.

But Bag-ao defended yesterday the purchase, saying the 4x4s were not luxury vehicles and were intended for local officials to enable them to visit remote and rugged areas of Dinagat Islands.

Bag-ao said the purchase of the vehicles, which she said were mostly multi-cabs and pick-up trucks, were allowed under the Department of Budget and Management’s “menu” of projects and purchases to be funded by the lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

“These (acquisition of 4x4s) are backed by resolutions (requests) from barangay captains, and municipalities and not one of them are intended for me. They are definitely not luxury vehicles but 4x4s to access remote and rugged areas,” Bag-ao told The STAR.

“We have been using motorcycles – sometimes I ride in tandem – just to inspect projects in remote areas but we cannot reach all of them in motorcycles,” she said.

“I have not been hiding anything, that’s why these are being published,” she said, adding that all the vehicles will bear government plates for easy monitoring and that all acquisitions were transparent and can easily be seen by the public on government websites.

An additional P26.4 million was released for Ecleo’s district on Dec. 5, P41 million on Dec. 12, and P40 million on Dec. 19.

The single biggest item in Bag-ao’s spending list is P21.175 million, which she allocated for the purchase of 77 units of multi-cab patrol vehicles costing P275,000 apiece. The vehicles are intended for various barangays in the district.

As Akbayan representative, Bag-ao received P59.5 million in 2012 for her projects, which are spread nationwide. Her Akbayan colleague Walden Bello received P66 million.

The P137.4-million releases to Ecleo’s district were the single biggest pork barrel disbursement for a congressional constituency in that region in 2012.