Team Nograles yesterday said it expected the Office of the Ombudsman to eventually step into the Commission on Audit (COA) findings on alleged misuse of the Special Education Fund (SEF) by the Duterte administration and expressed belief that more irregularities could be unearthed in the course of the anti-graft proceedings.
“The decision of the Ombudsman to order a full-dress investigation on the misuse of the special funds for public school teachers and students could have been done much earlier,” Team Nograles vice mayoral candidate Benjamin de Guzman said in a statement. “But as the saying goes, it’s better late than never.”
Metro Manila-based newspapers yesterday reported that overall deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro has ordered a thorough investigation into the involvement of local officials and members of the local school board on the alleged misuse of the SEF, beginning with the amount of P11 million earlier revealed publicly by Team Nograles. De Guzman, a former mayor and vice mayor who made the revelation, based his information on an official audit report by COA.
In Office of the Ombudsman Order 86 dated March 8, 2010, the Ombudsman office in Manila ordered the issuance of subpoeana to compel the submission of documents pertaining to the P11-million irregularity. Casimiro formed a special fact-finding investigation team to be headed by Judy Anne Doctor-Escalona. The anti-graft lawyer was given the authority to name three members to her panel.
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and the local school board members would be the objects of the fact-finding probe by the Ombudsman on the alleged misuse of the education fund. Duterte sits as chairman of the local school board that manages SEF. City Councilor Mabel Acosta, who sits as chairman of the education committee of the Sangguniang Panglunsod, sits as member of the local school board.
COA documents have established that the Duterte-led school board used P11 million from SEF to pay for catering services and the purchase of appliances and groceries for his “Pahalipay ni Mayor” program.
“This is criminal. The Special Education Fund should only be used for the uplift of salaries, allowances of elementary school teachers and student’s textbooks and computers, as well as the fund being spent for substitute teachers and school buildings,” said House Speaker Prospero Nograles, a five-time congressman of Davao City’s First District who is running in the mayoralty race this May.
“It is criminal to use the SEF for food catering parties and the buying of groceries for Christmas parties of other employees and the likes of which have absolutely no connection with educational uplift whatsoever,” the Speaker said in a statement published yesterday by the Manila-based Daily Tribune.
He stressed that not only is this fund misuse a gross violation of the law, “but it also deprived our public school teachers of their lawful share or the Special Education Fund which could have helped ease their financial problems and help them concentrate on their jobs.”
The COA report found an item listed for food catering in the amount of close to a million pesos, or P975,000 for Ayang Food Caterer. Another item found in the 2006 report was yet another catering claim, under Lola Maming Restaurant & Catering Services, in the amount of P487,500.00. Yet another catering item can be found in the report under Yellow Fin Seafood and Restaurant, worth close to half a million pesos, or P487,500, exactly the amount charged against Lola Maming Restaurant and Catering.
There were also other items allocated to Metro Plaza and the New City Commercial Center, paid by funds coming from the SEF.
The item on Metro Plaza found an amount of P 1,603,660 while the New City Center had under it, filed an amount of P7,800,000.00.
Republic Act 5447, the law that governs SEF use, provides for a penalty of a fine not exceeding P10,000 or imprisonment not exceeding six years or both in the event of a violation. It further states that if the offender is a government official or employee, he shall, in addition, be dismissed from the service with prejudice to reinstatement and perpetual disqualification for election or appointment to any public office.
Noting the findings of COA, Nograles pointed out that that City Hall has been violating the law and the purpose of the Special Education Fund with impunity, using the fund for personal and political purposes at the expense of public school teachers.
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