A new graft case has been filed against Congressman Oca Malapitan, along with several other respondents, before the Office of the Ombudsman. The case stemmed from Malapitan’s alleged misuse of his Priority Development Funds from 2007 to 2009, amounting to a total of Php8 million.
Based on the Complaint filed by former Caloocan Mayor Reynaldo Malonzo, the said amount was illegally transferred to the non-government organization Kaloocan Assistance Council, Inc. (KACI) despite being unqualified for PDAF transfer, as found by a Commission on Audit report.
A similar case was filed in 2015 against Malapitan and other respondents, wherein the Ombudsman found probable cause for violations including graft, malversation of public funds, and falsification of public documents in 2017. This finding, however, was reversed in 2019 for “insufficiency of evidence”.
“Similar to the case of Janet Lim Napoles, Congressman Oca Malapitan endorsed and used an NGO to embezzle government funds, a known modus used by politicians during that time. With the new evidence presented, I hope that the Ombudsman will indict the named respondents and let them face trial for graft and malversation,” according to Malonzo.
Documents gathered from COA revealed that the amounts in question that were released to KACI remain unliquidated after more than a decade. The COA Special Audits Office Report No. 2012-034 on PDAF, which was not previously considered in the case, outlined several discrepancies in the documents submitted and found illegallities in the transaction. The report highlighted that funds were transferred to NGOs without the required legal appropriations and that administrative expenses were charged to the subject PDAF, contrary to the existing rules and regulations. Further, there were Notices of Disallowance issued by COA in 2014, revealing illegal and irregular transactions involving the transfer of funds to KACI.
Furthermore, a review of the documents submitted by the NGOs, including KACI, disclosed that: 1) a number of beneficiaries have purportedly attended the same or similar trainings conducted by different NGOs for as many as 15 times and received multiple number of the same kits; and 2) a number of the same or similar trainings were purportedly conducted in the same barangay by the same or different NGOs.
Among other respondents in the graft case are Esperanza I. Cabral, Mateo G. Montano, Vilma B. Cabrera, Pacita D. Sarino, Leonila M. Hayahay, and Cenon M. Mayor. Some of these respondents were found guilty by the courts in other similar cases involving the misuse of PDAF.#
