THE National Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday filed a plunder and graft complaint against former Department of Public Works and Highways secretary Rogelio Singson before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with a P255-million right-of-way scam in General Santos City.Some 33 former and active department officials were included in the complaint, while former Budget secretary Florencio Abad was spared.
Earlier, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II linked Abad to the supposed irregularity.
A certain Roberto Catapang came forward as a witness, saying he once worked for a syndicate group inside the DPWH in connivance with Singson and the other officials in the fraud claims for right-of-way projects.
He identified the syndicate leader as Wilma Mamburam.
He told the NBI the dossiers submitted to the DPWH and the claimants were all fake.
The same involved spurious nine land titles amounting to P255 million worth of compensation paid to ghost claimants affected by the Digos-Makar-Buayan National Road project in General Santos City.
According to the NBI, the Register of Deeds in General Santos issued a March 6 certification that the transfers of titles of the nine claims were not processed “and [they do] not exist in the record and the vault of the Registry of Deeds.”
Singson wrote Abad a letter on Dec. 23, 2013, “requesting for the release of funds for the payment of the outstanding claims.”
“Abad granted the above-mentioned fund requested by Singson. The said amount was used to fund the fourth payments of the nine claims being investigated. In March 2015, all nine claims were fully paid,” its complaint read.
In addition, the bureau said Singson made it appear that the Land Registration Authority had issued certification declaring the nine titles as authentic.
But the LRA did not make any issuance, the NBI said.
“It appears from the investigation conducted that the foregoing procedures/requirements to safeguard the government from suffering undue injury had been blatantly disregarded by the government,” it added.
The accused were also charged with dishonesty and grave abuse of authority.