The Department of Justice will continue to provide protection to the whistleblower who implicated officials of the previous administration into the alleged P8.7-billion anomaly involving road right-of-way scam for road projects in General Santos City, despite questions on his credibility.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday turned down a plea to have Roberto Catapang Jr. dropped from the DOJ’s Witness Protection Program despite attacked on his credibility as a witness.
“He [Catapang] does not appear to be the most guilty, so we are right in putting him in the WPP,” Aguirre ruled.
Aguirre said that the accusations of Mercedita Dumlao and Wilma Mamburam against Catapang would not suffice to disqualify the witness from WPP coverage.
“Tha’s their allegation. They should prove it,” the Justice Secretary said.
Earlier, Dumlao and Mamburan wrote a letter to Aguirre asking that the DOJ dropped Catapang from the WPP for being a questionable witness.
According to them, Catapang is facing “numerous estafa complaints filed against him as well as his involvement in drugs cases in General Santos.”
Last month, Catapang implicated Dumlao, Mamburam, Col. Chino Mamburam and Nelson Ti as members of the syndicate who operated the RROW scam in General Santos City “in connivance with other government officials and private individuals.”
He alleged that Ti was the group’s alleged financier and a “close friend” of former President Benigno Aquino III.
Among the government officials he tagged were former Department of Public Works and Highways secretary Rogelio Singson and Department of Budget and Management secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad.
In a press conference, Catapang also implicated Eldon Cruz, brother-in-law of Aquino, in the controversy and claimed that the businessman signed a letter endorsing one of the projects in the anomaly.
The witness has since been placed under WPP coverage and given security.
In his affidavit, Catapang claimed that he was part of the syndicate who operated the scam.
He said they would fabricate fake titles in the name of non-existent persons and then secure payment using them.
Catapang said the syndicate was able to process over 300 RROW claims including one amounting to P29 million.
He recalled that despite the discovery of the scheme in 2011, the syndicate continued its operations in General Santos City.
In fact, he recalled that Abad released some P500 million in December 2013 upon the request of Singson for payment of ROW involving fake land titles.
Abad, Singson and 41 others, including Mamburam and Dumlao, have already been placed on the DOJ’s immigration lookout bulletin order.
Aguirre even dared Dumlao to clear her name from Catapang’s accusations.
In a two-page letter, Dumlao dismissed Catapang’s allegations that she was one of those who facilitated the release of payment for the private properties used for road projects funded by the Department of Public Works and Highways in General Santos using fictitious land titles.
“I vehemently deny having any involvement in the said scam and condemn in the strongest possible terms the unfair and baseless accusation made by Mr. Catapang,” Dumlao said in a two-page letter delivered by his legal counsel Danny Villanueva to the Office of the Justice Secretary.
“Contrary to Mr. Catapang’s claim, I am one of the numerous persons victimized by his felonious modus and scheme pertaining to his alleged RROW claims before the Region 12 Office of the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways),” read the letter. With PNA
She requested that the DOJ Secretary “meticulously evaluate the story of Mr. Catapang in the light (of) his involvement in drug dealing in General Santos City as can be seen in the confidential report of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, as well as his involvement in numerous money-making scams as can be seen from the numerous complaints for swindling filed against him.”
“I could no longer recover my money or investment from Mr. Catapang as the RROW claims he said were pending before the DPWH are fictitious,” she said.
Dumlao said that she has already filed cases for estafa, libel and falsification of public documents before the Quezon City Prosecutor's Office against Catapang.
The cases were filed, Dumlao said, to recover what she said she has invested in Catapang’s “purported RROW claims” and the “fake TCTs” he allegedly sent her.
At the same time, Dumlao asked Aguirre that she be removed in from the Bureau of Immigration’s Immigration Lookout Bulletin.
Aguirre had earlier instructed the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the scam.
Those who would be found liable could be prosecuted for committing crimes under Republic Act No. 3019 or the “Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act”.
Catapang also accused Eldon Cruz, brother-in-law of Aquino, of endorsing the release of payments for the supposed bogus RROW claims.
Catapang, who hails from General Santos City, said he joined the syndicate back in 2009 but left the group.
Aguirre said the allegations in the sworn statement of Catapang, including the amount taken from government coffers, are serious allegations that should be looked into in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to wage war on corruption, then and now