Philippine peace adviser Teresita Deles. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)
President Aquino’s peace adviser Teresita Deles is being questioned by the Commission on Audit or COA over hundreds of millions of pesos in government funds, reports said Tuesday.
In the report which can be accessed on this URL http://politics.com.ph/what-price-peace-ging-deles-in-hot-water-for-leasing-300-cars-keeping-p700m-dap-funds,
it said COA is asking Deles to explain why her Office of the Presidential
Assistant on the Peace Process or OPAPP rented 294 vehicles even though she and
other peace panel officers had their own service vehicles and transportation
allowances.
State auditors said Deles’ decision to pay the lease for
vehicles was highly questionable given the deal’s lack of “regularity and
probity.” The COA questioned why Deles’ office went ahead with the vehicle
rental without getting permission from the Department of Budget and Management.
The report said COA asked OPAPP why it spent P45.3 million
for vehicle rental which was more than what it spent for the rent of office
space and equipment. The COA questioned the need to rent 294 vehicles when
Deles and 34 other officers from her office and the government peace panel headed
by UP Professor Miriam Ferrer had 23 vehicles at their disposal with at least 4
officials being issued more than one service vehicle; and were given regular
transportation allowances. The COA discovered that Deles’ office had a total 56
vehicles in its motor pool. The COA said that Deles entered into vehicle lease
agreements with an employee in her office, who did not have prior experience in
the rental business, without bidding to “the disadvantage of the government and
in violation of Presidential Decree 1445 or the Government Auditing Code of the
Philippines
The report said COA also questioned why OPAPP did not return
the P662 million DAP funds more than year after the Supreme Court declared it
unconstitutional. The COA said that Deles’ office could have understated the
unreturned DAP funds because these were wrongly treated as liquidations by her
office.
Deles’ office received a total of P2.067 billion in DAP
funds of which P1.467 billion were used and transferred to the Armed Forces of
the Philippines, Office of the Regional Governor of the Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao and provincial government of Northern Samar and the Department
of Interior and Local Government.
The COA said that only P800 millions of this amount was
liquidated with the remaining P667 millions still unaccounted for. There was no
immediate statement from Deles over the COA allegations.
Just early this year, the local government of Zamboanga had
strongly criticized the secretive programs implemented by Deles for Moro
Islamic Liberation Front rebels and their supporters there.
Mayor Beng Climaco said Deles, without informing the local
government, has since 2013 implemented the so-called “Sajahatra Bangsamoro
Program for MILF communities,” raising fears that rebels and their supporters
have encroached Zamboanga.
Climaco said there are no MILF communities in Zamboanga and
that local residents and village leaders are opposed to the inclusion of the
city in the proposed Bangsamoro autonomous government. She said village
officials learned of the Sajahatra program through residents themselves.
She said village officials had been tasked to strictly
monitor their areas of responsibility for possible uncoordinated activities
such as those implemented purportedly for communities that are not recognized
by the local government.
Civil groups and politicians have previously demanded the
resignation of Deles over the killings of 44 police commandos by MILF rebels
and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters on January 25 in Maguindanao’s
Mamasapano town where members of the Special Action Force fatally shot
Malaysian bomber Zulkifli bin Hir deep inside MILF territory during a secret
anti-terror operation.
Some groups in Zamboanga wanted Deles be declared “persona
non grata” for the secretive Sajahatra program there. Climaco ordered village
leaders to stay vigilant and report any and all activities similar to Sajahatra
being implemented in Zamboanga. She said the city is not part of the Muslim
autonomous region nor shall Zamboanga be included in the proposed Bangsamoro
region.
The government said Sajahatra is a program aims to uplift
and develop the health, education and livelihood conditions of Muslim
communities, especially in the MILF areas in southern Philippines
http://mindanaoexaminer.com/philippine-peace-adviser-teresita-deles-being-questioned-over-funds-use/
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