Ampatuans 'stole' billions of ARMM funds 'as if there was no tomorrow'

26-Sep-11, 3:15 PM | Karl John C. Reyes, InterAksyon.com

Former ARMM governor Zaldy Ampatuan

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MANILA -  The administration of former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor Zaldy Ampatuan allegedly cashed or stole billions of pesos in public funds “as if there was no tomorrow,” Senator Franklin Drilon said Monday, citing a Commission on Audit (COA) report on all ARMM expenditures in the past 12 years.

Drilon said Ampatuan, who ruled Maguindanao and the ARMM for nearly a decade, was able to commit what the senator called “mind-boggling” corruption because previous administration of former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo tolerated it.

 “The COA finding is indeed mind-boggling in terms of the corruption and this corruption took place because the previous administration under (Arroyo) tolerated the Ampatuans in Maguindanao,” Drilon said, adding that he has been furnished a copy of the COA report.

Drilon said P1.486 billion in projects by the Department of Public Works and Highways in the ARMM was considered spurious. “Just to quote the COA report only on ARMM-DPWH: ‘Payments amounting to P1.123 billion to 100 suppliers and contractors were not either supported with documents that (are_ considered as spurious’.”

He also said cash advances worth hundreds of millions of pesos could not be accounted for. The Ampatuans, he said, “were withdrawing cash as if there was no tomorrow. Cash advances amounting to hundreds million of pesos were being done in one day.” As a rule, he pointed out, “payment musts be made by check.”

Drilon said from  January 2008 to September 2009, during the regime of the Ampatuans, a total of P1.682 billion were taken out as cash advances. “In one day, these checks were being cashed amounting to P98.25 million in one day,” he said.

The senator noted that the COA had found this highly improbable considering the purported payees were located in the different municipalities and provinces. “No public biddings were conducted. Again, transactions amounting to P855.8 million maybe considered as fictitious as there were denied by their suppliers,” he said.

 “For example, a procurement of fuel from Shell Cotabato service station and Shariff Aguak Petron station amounting to P28.2 million was considered fictitious because, for example, P5 million was never received by the payor and the checks were converted into cash because they were in the name of Datu Akman Amptuan Sr. and Islam Uy Amaptuan as co-payee,” Drilon explained.

Drilon said he wanted the Ampatuans to be charged with plunder, including their alleged cohorts in the previous administration of Rep. Arroyo, for amassing billions of public funds from the region. These funds, he said, were intended for development but ARMM still has the highest poverty incidence in the country.