DAVAO CITY, Philippines—The Office of the Ombudsman indicted former Leyte Representative Eduardo Veloso with graft and malversation for the alleged used of his P24 million pork barrel funds.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Ombudsman said it found probable cause to charge Veloso before the Sandiganbayan for two counts of violation of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act No. 3019) and two counts of Malversation.
“Field verifications conducted by the Ombudsman’s Field Investigation Office revealed that the multi-million peso PDAF was never used for the intended projects, which were discovered to be ghost projects,” it said.
Further, local government units from Leyte also denied that they received any livelihood or developmental packages from Veloso or from the non-governmental organization, the Ombudsman said.
Records show that in 2007, Veloso received P24 million from the Department of Budget and Management for his share in the PDAF.
However, the funds that should be used for livelihood and development projects for Veloso’s constituents with Technology Resource Center (TRC) as implementing agency and Aaron Foundation Philippines, Inc. (AFPI) as NGO-partner were allegedly spent in ghost projects.
The Commission on Audit also observed that AFPI had no financial capability to undertake the project, as it had a measly capital stock contribution of only P68,000.00. It was also discovered that in 2007, the NGO declared a net loss of P5,840.00, the Ombudsman said. (davaotoday.com)
