Samar government P800M loan case PB member wants Ombuds' intervention

CATBALOGAN CITY, Philippines — After the Regional Trial Court-branch 27 dismissed all of her petitions against the provincial government's P800-million loan, Samar Provincial Board Member Alma Uy had asked the Office of the Ombudsman to come in and investigate the processes to which the proposed loan had undergone.

Uy, in her letter to the Ombudsman for the Visayas, said Samar PB Ordinance 14-062-15 granted Governor Sharee Ann Tan the authority to enter into a loan of P851 million, but this amount was way beyond the proposed loan agreement with the Land Bank of the Philippines at P800 million only.

"There is this P51 million discrepancy, and we don't know why there should be an excess amount that huge when the proposed loan with the LBP is only P800 million, The authority given was to loan for P851 million," the PB member told the Ombudsman.

Uy said she already pointed the matter out with her colleagues in the PB and even to the governor, but allegedly no one made the effort to clarify the issue which has been hounding the Capitol during the past few months.

"I am requesting the Ombudsman to conduct a fact-finding initiative relative to this, basically to avert the prejudice it will cause to the people of Samar, who will be paying out for this debt for 15 years," Uy said.

Uy's request to the Ombudsman was filed with attached copies of the RTC's temporary restraining order, which was later lifted, and other documents earlier submitted to the RTC.

Governor Tan, in a separate message, vowed to answer and clarify the issue as soon as she is back from a meeting with some investors in Manila.

"It seems that they're out looking for someone who could declare a proper and legal thing illegal. It manifests a desperate act of trying to twist something that is right and make it appear to be wrong, I want to personally explain this next week, once and for all," Tan added in her message.  (FREEMAN)