COA INQUIRY STARTED IN 2012

ALCALA—Mayors – some former, others incumbent or in another position – of towns that supposedly received P10 million each in 2009 from the now scandalous Malampaya fund for agricultural assistance have denied receiving any money for their municipality and attested that their signatures were forged in the documents.

Among the municipalities listed as recipients of P10-million from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), released to Kasaganahan Para Sa Magsasaka Foundation, Inc., were this town, Binmaley, Mapandan, San Manuel, and Urdaneta City.

Former Mayor Manuel Collado of Alcala, who served for three terms, has sent a letter to National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Nonnatus Caesar Rojas to clarify his alleged participation.

In a letter dated August 15, 2013, Collado narrated that as early as June 8, 2012 when he was still the incumbent mayor, he received a letter dated May 11, 2012 from Director Susan P. Garcia of the Special Audits Office, Commission of Audit (COA), inquiring about the authenticity of the signatures appearing in documents attached to the letter.

Collado immediately called Garcia to say that “the signatures appearing on top of my name in all the documents furnished to us were not mine”.

He later sent Garcia a letter reiterating that “the signatures purporting to be mine are forgeries”.

Collado added that the Kasaganahan Para sa Magsasaka Foundation, Inc. is unknown to him, and that all the documents – including letters, memorandum of agreement, delivery receipt, certificate of acceptance, report of disbursement, certificate of project completion and inspection report – did not originate from his office,

“We have not received any agricultural kits from the aforesaid foundation,” Collado said in his letter to the NBI.

Alcala’s Municipal Agriculturist and the Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer have confirmed that the town never received any such agricultural assistance.

BINMALEY

Binmaley Mayor Simplicio Rosario, who lost in the 2010 election but reclaimed his seat in the recent May election, said he executed an affidavit on December 3, 2012 at the COA Special Audits Office saying that his signature was forged in a letter addressed to the secretary of Agrarian Reform dated October 2009.

He said his signature was likewise faked in all the other documents.

“I was surprised last year to receive a letter from COA so I executed an affidavit because I really didn’t know what happened and no one approached me about a P10-million fund that our town would receive,” Rosario said.

“In short, all my signatures for those documents were forged and even the letterhead used supposedly coming from the municipal government didn’t bear any logo of our town,” he added.

Rosario said he welcomes an investigation and is fully cooperating “so that this malpractice would stop (and) so that any future scams would be prevented”.

“Those behind this scam earned money from it but our municipality did not benefit any,” he said.

VICE GOV.

Meanwhile, Vice Gov. Jose Ferdinand Calimlim Jr., who was former mayor of Mapandan, said in a separate interview that he also executed an affidavit in October 2012 after he received a similar letter from the COA asking him to account for the P10-million fund purportedly received by his town.

“I saw the documents and they forged my signatures. I had my affidavit, together with our municipal treasurer, municipal agriculturist that no such project was received by our town,” Calimlim said.

“We are victims of a fund scam here,” Calimlim said.

URDANETA

Former Urdaneta City Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. who is now the chairman of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, also sent Garcia a letter dated October 8, 2012 saying that he never endorsed the Tanglaw Para sa Magsasaka Foundation, Inc. to the DAR for any possible grant and he has no knowledge of the existence of said foundation until he received a COA letter.

“I wish to inform you that my alleged signatures in the documents you have furnished me are all forgeries,” Perez told Garcia.

SAN MANUEL

In San Manuel, former Mayor Salvador Perez Sr., now the vice mayor, said he received a similar inquiry from COA in November 2009 but did not bother replying because he “knew nothing” about the supposed project.

He did say he was certain that the signatures in the documents were fake because “even the best forger could not forge my signature”.–Eva Visperas

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