Broadcaster Ben Tulfo and former Tourism secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo will not be off the hook as the legal process is running against them following their refusal to return a P60-million fund, Malacañang said Monday.
The Palace made the statement even as Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said Monday he intended to file a plunder case against Tulfo-Teo and her brother over the P60-million payment by the Tourism Department to the media outfit of Ben Tulfo in 2017 despite the lack of documents to support the transaction.
He urged the Senate Blue Ribbon committee led by Senator Richard Gordon to act on his resolution seeking a probe on the matter “so we can determine the magnitude of the corruption.”
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque expressed disappointment over the Tulfo’s failure to return the money used for the Tourism Department’s allegedly illegal ad placement aired in the broadcaster’s program Bitag Media Unlimited Inc.
“It is really saddening. Both Ben and Wanda promised to return the money,” Roque said in a radio interview, adding the other Tulfo brothers, including Mon Tulfo, were not involved in the issue.
“If they do not comply with what they have declared, it’s okay, we go through the process,” Roque said.
“I have heard the President say that it is imperative that the legal process must run and let those liable be held accountable in the anomalies in the DoT.”
Tulfo had insisted last Thursday that he would not return a single centavo of the P60 million.
“We will return nothing,” Tulfo said in a Facebook post.
“Our contracts and documents were complete. What we did was legal. We delivered and worked for it,” Tulfo said.
“Do you want proof? We have here a ton of videos that PTV-4 produced and aired in our ‘Kilos Pronto’ nationwide, worldwide, and in social media. Prove your allegation of conflict of interest to us in court.”
The controversy started when the Commission on Audit questioned the Tourism department’s P60-million payment to Tulfo in 2017 due to the lack of documents to support the legitimacy of the transaction.
In 2017, COA found in PTV-4’s disbursement records three checks amounting to P60,009,560 that were issued to BMUI, which runs ‘Kilos Pronto.’
“Due to the absence of the documents mentioned and the deficiencies noted, the accuracy, legality and validity of the payments made to block timer BMUI in the amount of P60,009,560.00 could not be ascertained,” COA said.
It said this was in violation of Presidential Decree 1455, series of 1978, or the Government Auditing Code and COA Circular 2012-001, which lists the required documents for government transactions. With Vito Barcelo and Macon Ramos-Araneta