EIGHT persons posing as Department of Budget and Management (DBM) officials were arrested in an entrapment operation conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) last Mar. 26.
Initial report showed that one of the suspects introduced herself to the complainant as a DBM undersecretary, claiming that she could assist in releasing funds for government projects and that she was in charge of the agency’s special projects.
The suspects allegedly promised the complainant, a project contractor, access to P1.3 billion worth of government project if they agreed to their conditions. The project was purportedly related to the construction of a dam funded by the DBM.
The suspects assured the complainant that the project would be awarded to her, but before that, they needed the contractor to come up with some amounts as “grease money” for the project’s “blue print” ostensibly needed for the processing of documents.
However, the contractor made some verifications with the DBM, and found out there was no undersecretary with the name given to her by the poseurs, and that there was no such project in the agency’s records.
Subsequently, the DBM collaborated with the NBI to lay down the trap, and the suspects were eventually arrested at a restaurant in Mandaluyong City after receiving marked money amounting to P500,000 from an NBI operative.
“Mariin po nating kinokondena ang ganitong klaseng gawain. May proseso po tayong sinusunod na naaayon sa mga umiiral na batas (We strongly condemn this kind of activity. We have a process that we follow according to law),” Budget Secretary Amenah. Pangandaman said.