A WITNESS on Monday identified Eldon Cruz, the brother-in-law of former President Benigno Aquino III, as the one who endorsed the release of payments for the alleged “ghost” road right-of-way claims amounting to P8.7 billion in General Santos City.
In a press conference with Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, Roberto Catapang Jr. admitted that he was part of a syndicate that facilitated the documentation and application for financial settlements of private properties subject to expropriation by the state to pave the way for the construction of government roads.
Catapang said the properties were covered by spurious land titles and other documents that he and other members of their syndicate had manufactured in cahoots with corrupt government employees.
However, Catapang admitted that he never met Cruz nor saw him speak with public officials to facilitate the multi-million-peso transactions in the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Department of Budget and Management.
Aguirre, who presented the witness to the media, advised the witness to answer questions from the media pertinent to the contents of his sworn affidavit.
When Catapang asked the Justice Secretary him if he could name Cruz, Aguirre nodded and said: “You have the documents. Show them your documents.”
“Apparently, they were using his name always, not just a few times. Sorry sir. It’s sir Eldon Cruz,” Catapang told the media.
“Actually, this is the talk of the town in the DPWH. The people in central (office) know that. They had been talking about it during the time of President Aquino,” he said.
To back up his claim, Catapang showed a letter dated Jan. 12, 2011 that Cruz allegedly sent to then Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson requesting the release of payment for road right-of-way claims.
But the single-page letter did not bear Cruz’ full name, but only his supposed signature.
“According to them (his cohorts), that’s his (Cruz) signature,” Catapang said.
“I know you have your own sources in the DPWH. You can ask for copies of the letters there,” the witness said.
He admitted that the letter was only given to him by a friend and that it was not a certified true copy.
Catapang also admitted that he saw at least two more letters of endorsement allegedly signed by Aquino’s brother-in-law with one of them bearing a letterhead of Malacañang.
Aside from Cruz, Catapang also implicated Singson and former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad in the alleged road right-of-way claims anomaly.
Aguirre earlier directed the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the alleged scam.
Catapang said the members of the syndicate would submit fake land titles using the name of non-existent individuals to secure payment for the right-of-way.
Aguirre said syndicate managed to process more than 300 such claims using fake documents, adding that Abad apparently approved the release of the payment for the road right-of-way claims of the syndicate as requested by Singson.
Catapang said the syndicate was also in cahoots with officials from the DPWH, BIR, the city assessors office of General Santos City, the Registry of Deeds and the Commission on Audit.
Also on Monday, Aguirre issued an immigration look-out bulletin order against 43 individuals involved in the alleged scam, including Abad and Singson.
The order dated Nov. 24 also covered a certain Col. Chino Mamburan, Merceditas Dumlao, Wilma Mamburam and Nelson Ti, who Aguirre earlier tagged as being involved in the scam.
Ti was allegedly the group’s financier.
A person subject to an immigration lookout bulletin order must seek the clearance of the Justice secretary before leaving the country.