League welcomes probe to clear mayors
PORK BARREL SCAM
LET’S prove the innocence of our mayors.
This was the stance made by the president of the Pangasinan Mayors League (PML) as he expressed support for an investigation on alleged corruption involving the Malampaya fund, part of which supposedly went to four towns and one city in the province.
“Investigation is necessary so that we will know who is behind all these and to clear the names of the mayors from Pangasinan,” said PML president Noel Nacar, mayor of Dasol.
Nacar recalled that a few weeks before the names of the supposed recipients of the tainted fund were made public, the concerned former mayors and one incumbent mayor already gave assurance to the group that they have no participation in the anomalous disbursement.
“We had a meeting last July where it was brought up and all the mayors in the province confirmed that they were not aware of the matter,” Nacar said.
The local governments in Pangasinan named as beneficiaries of P10 million each from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in 2009 sourced out from the Malampaya fund are Alcala, Binmaley, Mapandan, San Manuel and Urdaneta City.
All the five mayors have denied receiving the fund and submitted documents attesting that their signatures in the paper trail were forged. (See story in The PUNCH August 18 issue or online at http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/2013/08/18/5-mayors-deny-role-in-napoles-scam/)
The five were: former Mayor Manuel Collado (Alcala), returning Mayor Simplicio Rosario (Binmaley), incumbent Vice Governor Jose Ferdinand Calimlim Jr. former (Mapandan); incumbent Vice Mayor Salvador Perez Jr. (San Manuel), and Manila Economic Cultural Office (MECO) Chairman Amadeo Perez Jr. (Urdaneta City).
Nacar said some mayors received assistance from their respective congressional representatives using the pork barrel, officially known as the Public Development Assistance Fund, but he stressed none of these were covered under the Malampaya Fund.
The fund is part of the alleged P10-billion pork barrel scam involving several senators and congressmen as allegedly manipulated by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles who is currently a fugitive.–Dada Martin Austria with report from Johanne R. Macob
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