MANILA: The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) confirmed yesterday that fake special allotment release orders (Saros) to mayors for P879m worth of farm-to-market roads have been discovered.
Budget Secretary Butch Abad, however, clarified that there was no actual release of the funds.
“There was no release,” Abad said in a televised press briefing in Malacañang.
“Was there any money that was lost as result of this? There was none because it was just a Saro that was forged which was not released at all.”
In the same briefing, Department of Agriculture Sec Proceso Alcala corroborated Abad’s statement. Abad said the case involves 12 Saros for farm-to-market roads all over the country costing P879m that has not yet been released yet nor signed by then Assistant Budget Secretary Luz Cantor.
Abad explained that on October 22, a DBM office director in charge of agriculture got a call from the regional field unit office of the DA inquiring about the originals of the Saro involving farm to market roads in Region 2 or Cagayan Valley.
He said the DA field unit office asked if the Saro had been released because they were in possession of a request for release of Saros that were already signed.
The DBM office director then inquired from Cantor’s office and learned that the Saros were still with the latter and had not been signed.
The following day, the budget chief said he wrote to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) regarding the controversy and requesting for a probe from the agency.
On the same day, Abad said they cancelled all 12 Saros.
Reports said Abad imposed a news blackout on the NBI’s ongoing investigation, but the budget chief said yesterday that they did not want to preempt the probe findings before informing the public regarding the case.
He said they are “aggressively pursuing” the case.
The Philippine Star
