The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the filing of new charges of graft and malversation of public funds against detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles and some agriculture officials before the Sandiganbayan for another involvement in a P5-million fertilizer fund scam.
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales found probable cause to charge Napoles and officials from the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Unit XIII in Butuan City for the irregularities in the procurement of fertilizers for the agricultural reinforcement project of Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte.
Napoles, along with DA assistant regional director Edgardo Dahino, chief administrative officer Jessica Da-an, administrative officer Merylinda Santos, accountant III Gerry Leop, and private respondents Evelyn de Leon and Rodel Pontillas from the Philippine Social Development Foundation Inc. are set to face trial before the Sandiganbayan for violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and malversation of public funds.
Court records said that in May 2004, the DA regional office in Caraga entered into a memorandum of agreement with the municipality government of Del Carmen and PSDFI for the procurement of fertilizers with a project cost of P5 million.
Upon scrutiny, the Ombudsman said the project did not have any appropriation since Republic Act No. 9162 or the General Appropriations Act of 2002, the source of funding, was effective only until December 2003, therefore it could not have served as the appropriation law for the MoA executed in 2004.
DA officials released the entire fund to PSDFI without complying with Commission on Audit Circular No. 96-003 requiring funds to be released in three tranches.
According to the Ombudsman, there were no fertilizers distributed in Del Carmen based on certifications issued by the municipality’s agriculturist.
“For conspiring with public respondents for ordering the reactivation of the PSDFI and entering into the transaction with the DA RFU Caraga and the municipality using PSDFI as conduit for the project; by allowing the issuance of fake official receipts to make it appear that the PSDFI received the public funds; by issuing a report of disbursement using her employee, respondent de Leon, to make it appear that the PSDFI used the P5 million in the acquisition of fertilizers, and by purchasing fake liquid fertilizers for P100nper 300ml/bottle and selling them to DA RFU Caraga at P800 per 300 ml/bottle,” the resolution read, referring to Napoles.
The order was approved on July 11, but was just recently released to the media.
Napoles, along with former senators Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., and government officials, is facing plunder and graft raps before the Sandiganbayan as the alleged architect of the multibillion-peso pork barrel fund scam.