THE National Association of Lawyers for Justice and Peace dismissed as insufficient the defense by Liberal Party officials that presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II is not accountable for P7 billion in funds which he had handled as interior and local government secretary.
NALJP founding chairman lawyer Jesus Santos said Roxas should not pass the buck and take responsibility for the funds since he was the one who distributed the money.
“Mr. Roxas must show the records of how much was given to each LGU, who received the money and how, when, where and for what purpose. Related documents such as project studies and accomplishment reports must also be presented,” Santos said.
“Related to all these, Mr. Roxas must also clarify reports that he had allegedly failed to monitor the implementation of the supposed projects. If these are true, why did he fail to do so? If not, what was the status of the supposed projects until he stepped down as DILG secretary,’’ Santos pointed out
“Considering the amount and the implications, mere words by Roxas or anyone else in the LP will never be enough assurance that there is nothing wrong with the handling of the P7 billion,” the lawyer said.
“The truth must be proven immediately since it will be the people who will be the biggest losers in this issue. Let’s not forget that the P7 billion is the people’s money, and not anybody else’s,” Santos added.
Unless Roxas comes out with a detailed and convincing explanation, Santos said the presidential aspirant should not cry foul if accusations start flying that the P7 billion is being spent for his campaign.
The opposition United Nationalist Alliance raised the matter of the unliquidated fund transfers and charged that the funds are now being used in the campaign of Roxas and his running mate Leni Robredo.
Citing a 2014 Commission on Audit report, UNA spokesman Mon Ilagan said the fund transfers also covered projects such as the Provision of Potable Water program (Salintubig), Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (Pamana), Bottom-Up Budgeting (BUB), Rehabilitation Assistance on Yolanda (RAY), and the Public Transport Assistance Program (PTAP).
Ilagan said the receivables accounts accumulated to a huge amount of P7.040 billion because management failed to monitor the liquidations of the fund transfers and submission of the corresponding financial reports contrary to CoA Circular No. 94-013.
Aside from the unliquidated fund transfers, the same report revealed that some P17 million in cash advances also remain unliquidated, Ilagan said.
In its 2013 annual financial report, COA said the DILG under Roxas accrued P1.1 billion in unliquidated cash advances “granted for local and foreign travels and for special purpose/time-bound undertakings.”
But the LP, through Roxas spokesman Rep. Barry Gutierrez, said responsibility for liquidation is now lies with the LGUs which is still implementing many projects.
“All these funds are fully accounted for and the entire process is completely transparent,” he added.