As the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee continued its investigation into the P8.7-billion road right-of-way (RROW) payment scam, Senator Richard Gordon wanted officials and employees of government agencies involved in RROW payment to undergo lifestyle checks.
Gordon, chairman of the Blue Ribbon committee, said he suspects that officials and employees of concerned government agencies—including the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Budget and Management, and Land Registration Authority, among others—could be involved in the conspiracy to defraud the government.
He said the Office of the Ombudsman, the Department of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation should conduct lifestyle checks on current and former officials of the following agencies.
“I am convinced that the road right-of-way payment scam is perpetrated with the connivance of unscrupulous individuals from different agencies that have a role in RROW payment,” Gordon said.
“That’s why I am calling on the Office of the Ombudsman, the DOJ and the NBI to perform lifestyle checks on some officials, current and former, and some employees of these agencies who have a direct role in the transactions,” he added.
The Right-of-Way Act mandates the government to provide just compensation for landowners whose properties were or will be used or affected by national infrastructure projects, such as the building of roads.
The Blue Ribbon has been investigating the RROW payment scam in General Santos City.
The modus operandi of the syndicate was to claim for just compensation of RROW which is intended for rightful owners who were affected by the national highway construction in General Santos City.
Gordon said the syndicate submitted fake titles and have cost the government P255.55-million for nine parcels of land alone in General Santos City.
“When you can no longer rely on one of the most important pillars of business and property ownership – the title, the Torrens title, if you cannot rely on that then nobody’s going to come in and invest here. Our commercial transactions would all be affected. People cannot pass on their property by way of sale or by way of inheritance,” Gordon said.