Senior lawmaker says he has goods on Gina’s aide
A senior administration lawmaker has promised to present “incontrovertible evidence” of corruption against the trusted aide of embattled Environment Secretary Gina Lopez once Congress resumes session this week.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, under whose district mining operations are prevalent, confirmed
The STAR’s previous report about the instructions allegedly made by former DENR undersecretary Leo Jasareno for an allegedly altered mining audit report.
Barbers was referring to the DENR’s supposed alteration of its findings on Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. to make it appear that it committed major violations.
“See, I told you so. This is what I have been saying all along,” Barbers said. “Those mining companies that violated the laws remain in operation while those who deserve to operate were ordered closed.”
Barbers said this was a “decision made by only one man, Leo Jasareno.”
“How it happened is the billion-dollar question that only Jasareno can answer. We have incontrovertible evidence pointing to the manipulations of the mine audit,” he said.
“We await the attendance of secretary designate Gina and the rest of her cabal in the committee on good government so I can show to her the shenanigans being committed by her most trusted adviser as well as the other equally corrupt Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) regional directors who play God in their areas of jurisdiction. If this revelation does not move the secretary, then I can only guess why,” he added.
Jasareno, a career official, used to head the MGB before serving as undersecretary and consultant of Lopez.
Jasareno has denied the allegations against him, saying the audit alteration is not true.
“Nothing can kill the truth,” he added, but refused to elaborate.
In an affidavit submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman, the mine audit team leader admitted having tampered the audit results of Lepanto on the orders of Jasareno.
The STAR obtained a copy of the fourpage affidavit dated April 6, but the head of the audit team requested that his name be withheld for security reasons.
“Jasareno instructed our team to change the result of our mine audit for Lepanto by insisting that ‘major violations’ rather than minor lapses (as we found in our audit) were supposedly committed by Lepanto and that the team ‘should recommend the suspension of its mining operations,’” the audit team leader said in the affidavit.
The team leader was referring to the events that took place last year before Jasareno announced in a televised interview on Sept. 27, 2016 that Lepanto was among the mining companies suspended by the DENR.
“I immediately consulted with members of my team by phone regarding (Jasareno’s) instruction. My team decided that we will not change our audit report and should maintain our findings that Lepanto had substantially complied with the environment and mining laws and no penalty is recommended,” the team leader added.
The team leader also said he was “disturbed by the instructions of Jasareno,” so he conferred with the leaders of the other audit teams who said they were also given similar instructions to change their audit reports and recommend either the suspension or closure of the mining operations they audited.
“On Sept. 13, 2016, Jasareno called me to his office again. With his guidance on the wordings, he directed me to draft another memorandum that will contain a recommendation that ‘Lepanto should be ordered to show cause why its operation should not be stopped’,” he added.
The team leader said he had no choice but to sign the draft memorandum dated Sept. 13, 2016.
But Lopez did not sign the draft memorandum because the report cited only several lapses and not major violations.
“It came as a shock to me and to members of my team when Jasareno announced on live television in the morning of Sept. 27, 2016 that Lepanto is one of the additional 20 companies recommended for suspension when that pronouncement was contrary to our findings and conclusion in our audit report,” the team leader said in his affidavit.