OMBUDSMAN Conchita Carpio Morales ordered on Tuesday the dismissal of North Cotabato Vice Governor Gregorio Ipong from government service and perpetually disqualified from holding any public office over a P10-million pork barrel fund scam.
Ipong and four others—Technology and Livelihood Resource Center executives Antonio Ortiz, Dennis Cunanan, Marivic Jover and Alfredo Ronquillo—are facing trial before the Sandiganbayan for one count of graft and one count of malversation of public funds.
In 2007, the Department of Budget and Management released P10,000,000 as part of the lawmaker’s Priority Development Assistance Fund to finance livelihood projects of North Cotabato’s second district but later found the implementing non-government organization unqualified.