A PARTYMATE of President Aquino in the House of Representatives is facing multiple graft charges for the alleged irregular use of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (Pdaf) in 2012 for a scholarship program.
Liberal Party Rep. Joaquin Carlos Rahman Nava of Guimaras was charged for alleged violation of government accounting rules, as recommended by state auditors.
The graft charges were filed before the Ombudsman’s Visayas Regional Office by Ranie Z. Jangayo Sr., a journalist with the Iloilo newspaper The Daily Guardian and a broadcaster of Bacolod-based AM radio station dyEZ, sister station of national radio station dzRH.
In his seven-page complaint, Jangayo questioned Nava’s scholarship program, which gives education subsidies to recipients, because many of the scholars were enrolled in private colleges and universities and those primarily offering review courses in Iloilo City.
The beneficiaries included students enrolled in at least 13 private schools in Iloilo City, based on a report posted at the Department of Budget and Management web site.
“The grant of scholarships to students enrolled in private universities and colleges…is highly questionable, as public funds are disbursed to students enrolled in private schools who are, by fact of being enrolled [in private schools], are presumed [to be] capable of paying for their own education,” the complaint said.
Jangayo alleged that the private-school students who benefited from Nava’s scholarship program were enrolled in the University of Iloilo, Iloilo Doctors College, Colegio Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, John B. Lacson Colleges Foundation, Saint Therese MTC Colleges, Central Philippine University, University of San Agustin, Saint Paul University Iloilo, Cabalum Western College, Colegio de San Jose, Western Institute of Technology and Systems Technology Institute.
One of the private schools where some of the beneficiaries were purportedly enrolled, the De Paul College, ceased operations in 2010 owing to bankruptcy, and its premises now serve as the temporary office of the Regional Trial Court in Iloilo.
Despite its closure, De Paul College continued to appear on the list of schools that received pork-barrel funding for scholars because the list was a carryover from 2010, the complaint added. The grant of scholarships to students enrolled in public, elementary and high schools is unnecessary as public education for these levels are already free, the complaint said.
The disbursement vouchers of the local government of Jordan for the scholarship program reached P5.667 million, which exceeds the P3.321 million that Nava allotted for the scholarship program covering the capital town.
Jangayo cited the failure of the provincial government to submit purchase orders worth P638,102.90 and certificates of acceptance amounting to P947,760.78 to the Office of the Auditor, which allegedly violated Commission on Audit Circular 96-010 dated August 15, 1996.
Jangayo, who is a resident of Jaro District in Iloilo City, said he filed the complaint even if he was not a resident of Guimaras “as a moral obligation.”
Meanwhile, Nava denied that he misused his Pdaf.
“They [complainants] filed it before the barangay election in 2013, using it as campaign issue against those candidates perceived running with my support,” he said in a text message. “They simply rode on Pdaf scandal that time.
Their allegation is that we included a “school, that eventually closed, among those listed in the project proposal. For one to avail themselves of an educational assistance, the school where he or she is enrolled must be on the list. The question then is who were those individuals who availed themselves of the assistance without enrollment documents? Well they can’t show any because there’s none. All these usually crop up every session…it’s not new,” Nava added.
(With Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz)