COTABATO CITY—Fellow Muslims sympathetic to the family of the late Justice Secretary Simeon Datumanong had said that the former Justice secretary deserved to be cleared of graft charges after the Ombudsman acknowledged of committing an error in charging him months after he died last February.
A co-respondent of Datumanong’s in the Sandigan said the late former congressman of Maguindanao deserved to be cleared, as the P3.6-million community projects funded with his Priority Development Assistance Fund “have been implemented and liquidated, unlike the ghost Napoles projects.”
But Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said that Datumanong’s name would not be dropped from the charge sheets just as yet, pending determination of whether a “conspiracy” among all six respondents, including him, attended alleged irregularities in the procurement process.
Because of this, some relatives of Datumanong are now entertaining thoughts that Datumanong could be the subject of a “political vendetta” as one of four lawmakers who questioned before the Supreme Court the constitutionality of then President Benigno Aquino III’s Executive Order No. 1, creating a Truth Commission. Aquino lost that case (G.R. 193036) in 2010.
“Why choose Cong Sim [Datumanong’s nickname] of all the rest at inuna pa (even indicted ahead), just like Sen. [Gregorio] Honasan, if there is no hidden agenda or vindictive motive somewhere? Yung mga ganitong panggigipit pinagsasa Diyos ko na lang [I’d rather leave these to God]. He knows the truth and He knows we never committed any wrong,” said lawyer Mehol Sadain, former chairman of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos.
Aquino III was reportedly wounded in the Honasan-led 1989 coup d’tat, which was said to be the bloodiest of all seven coup attempts during the tenure of his mother, the late President Corazon C. Aquino.
Datumanong’s family said that in all his life as a veteran lawmaker, the late representative and justice secretary had never sponsored big congressional funds allocation, except for mandatory Philippine loan counterpart funding programs for foreign-assisted projects implemented in his district, and in nearby areas.
Sadain said the late lawmaker allowed the implementation of the P3.6 million, NCMF projects funded by his PDAF, through a one-year memorandum of agreement between NCMF and the Maharlika Lipi Foundation Inc., a non-government organization.
“The NCMF did receive the PDAF of the respected Cong Sim and was implemented in two areas in Maguindanao, monitored with pictures and reports by NCMF staff, then fully liquidated,” Sadain said.
Implementation of government projects through MoA is a common practice in government agencies or local government units prequalified to have the capability to implement such projects in terms of human and technical resources. But the Ombudsman ruled that the projects should have been covered by a public bidding as required by the procurement law.
Datumanong had been secretary of the Department of Justice from 2003 to 2004 and of the Department of Public Works and Highways (2001-2003), but this was the first time he had been indicted, his relatives and friends have said. Under him, the DPWH had set a cap to help regulate on foreign borrowings for the country’s infrastructure programs, and opened participation of sectors, including the media as observers, in public bids. Under his watch, the DoJ opened better facilities for inmates’ right to conjugal visits, and filed landmark cases later won for the government.
The Ombudsman has also charged Sadain, Galay Makalinggan, acting NCMF regional director for Central Mindanao, Fedelina Aldanese, acting chief accountant, Aurora Aragon-Mabang, accounting executive, and cashier Olga Galido, as well as MLFI project manager Queenie Rodriguez.
“It is very different from the ghost projects of Napoles and yet the ombudsman persisted in filing a graft case against us who signed the voucher and released the money. The good Cong Sim deserves to be cleared. Just like all of us who are left to defend the project,” Sadain said.
Datumanong’s nephew Omar Datumanong said his uncle was unhappy on learning that the Truth Commission case did really hurt Aquino—and that this was followed by a confluence of events, including the impeachment of both Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and Chief Justice Renato Corona. “Hurting anyone is not his cup of tea,” said Datu Kharis Baraguir, a former classmate and long-time associate of Datumanong’s in public offices.
Another relative said the late congressman had told him there was nothing personal in his opposing Mr. Aquino’s E.O. 1 in the SC, even as former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, who was a prominent presidential nominee to the Truth Commission, was his law school classmate.
Makalinggan said this was the first time that he and his fellow respondents, including Datumanong, were charged by the Ombudsman for alleged wrongdoings in public office, adding that: “If only Sandigan would accept testimony by swearing before the Holy Book of the Muslims, he would swear he did not earn a single centavo from signing documents pertaining to project payments.”
He said he and other NCMF respondents were just “small fries” like Galido, Aragon-Mabang and Aldenese, who is about to retire. Aldenese has worked for the agency and its forerunners since 1982 by which she had sent her children to school, including a recent year graduate of the Philippine Military Academy.
