Garcia: Capitol opinion “bogus”

Former congressman Pablo “Pabling” Garcia has described as “bogus” and defied Supreme Court decision the opinion of the Provincial Legal Office on the utilization of his Priority Development Fund (PDAF) or congressional pork barrel.

Garcia also reminded Provincial Legal Officer Orvi Ortega of the pending criminal complaint he filed on May 6, 2016 against him, Governor HilarioDavide III, and Vice Governor Agnes Magpale relative to the Capitol’s spending of the P72.8 million he downloaded to the provincial government when he was congressman of Cebu’s second district.

Ortega recently said the Capitol can still use the unutilized funds amounting to P41.74 million despite the directive from the Commission on Audit to return the funds to the national treasury pursuant to SC decision.

Ortega, however, disagreed with COA’s request, saying that the funds were no longer part of the Special Allotment Release Order (SARO), thus they were not covered by the SC ruling.

This means that the downloaded pork barrel funds from 2006 to 2013 can still be utilized and disbursed by the provincial government, he said.

“The issuance of this “bogus” Legal Opinion by the Governor and Legal Officer, who are lawyers, is not only a deliberate, willful, deceitful and unpardonable falsification of a public document, in violation of our Penal Law, but also constitutes a serious breach of Legal Ethics, particularly the Lawyers Oath and can be a ground for Disbarment Proceedings under Rule 139 of this Rules of Court,” Garcia said.

Garcia said he will make a follow up on his criminal complaint for technical malversation of public funds, falsification of public document and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act against Davide, Magpale and Ortega which he filed before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas more than two years ago.

By second half of 2012, Garcia said he already identified and submitted to the Province of Cebu, for implementation, various programs and projects for the different local government units of the Second Congressional District and the request for funding out of the PDAF and supporting documents were already processed and approved by the Provincial Accountant and Treasurer.

Unfortunately, then governor Gwendolyn “Gwen” Garcia was suspended in the third week of December 2012 and then acting governor Agnes Magpale made a query to the Department of Budget and Management with regard to the nature and disposition of the PDAF.

Then DBM secretary Florencio Abad said that, “Congressman Garcia can direct the disbursement of the entire PDAF allocation exclusively to such LGU” but still Magpale reportedly refused to sign the vouchers and checks.

Garcia sought the assistance of the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas who called for a conference with DBM officials and Magpale’s representative where it was made clear that “there was no reason or justification whatsoever for the non-implementation of the programs and projects of complainant chargeable against his PDAF which was held in trust by the Province of Cebu.”

In spite of that conference, Magpale still refused to act on the pending implementation of Garcia’s projects and programs for his district.

This prompted Garcia to write the Province of Cebu to return the balance of his PDAF to the House of Representatives, which was the source of these funds, by virtue of the General Appropriations Act and the DBM Circulars stating that same funds could no longer be utilized after the expiration of his term on June 30, 2013.

When Gwen returned to office after the six months suspension, she acted his father’s letter and directed the Provincial Treasurer to return the remaining funds.

On May 18, 2015, Provincial Accountant MarietoYpil informed Garcia that his PDAF funds were not returned but instead were actually used and disbursed by the administration of Davide and Magpale with a remaining balance of P41.8 million.

The Supreme Court on November 19, 2013, in its landmark decision, ruled that the appropriation of PDAF is unconstitutional and the funds should be reverted to the National Treasury except the funds covered by Notice of Cash Allocations (NCAs) such as the Malampaya Fund and the Presidential Social Fund.—