Aside from Oro, ‘fake NGO’ had dealings (and cases) in other places

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent .

ONE of the criminal and administrative cases that former mayor Vicente Emano and others are currently facing before the Office of the Ombudsman is on the disbursement of the congressional fund of Aambis-Owa partylist Rep. Sharon Garin in 2013.

City hall’s deal was with a “non-government organization” called Kaagapay Magpakailanman Foundation Inc. (KMFI) that has been linked to the infamous pork barrel scam.

Ernesto Molina, a former “job order” worker at city hall filed the case against Emano, et al., in the morning of July 13. Molina included in his complaint former city treasurer Marilyn Legaspi, ex-city accountant Wilma Rugay, Gresilda Joson, who used to be city hall’s budget officer, and Carlos Soriano, president of Kaagapay Magpakailanman Foundation.

In his 10-page complaint, Molina accused Emano and others of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, malversation of public fund under Article 217 and 218 of the Revised Penal Code, and Section 3(e) of Republic Act 6713 or the Philippine Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

Molina claimed that Emano, Legaspi, Rugay, and Joson colluded in disbursing P4 million from Garin’s congressional fund to train farmers to become “small-scale entrepreneurs.”

However, Molina said the fund disbursement was supported only with “undated and non-notarized memorandum of agreement” among Emano, Garin, and Soriano.

“The names and signatures appearing on the list of beneficiaries were patently spurious and handwritten by the same person or a group of persons with distinguishable handwriting style and characteristics,” Molina’s complaint reads in part.

Molina further accused KMFI of being a fake NGO.

“Kaagapay Magpakailanman Foundation Inc. (KMFI) is not a legitimate and eligible non-government organization, as disclosed by COA’s special audit office reports no. 20112-03 on Aug. 14, 2013, as an offshoot to the discovery of the pork barrel scam,” Molina’s complaint reads.

The Commission on Audit however said KMFI is a “non-Napoles NGO.” COA’s audit reports, which covered the Priority Development Assistance Fund and various infrastructure, including local project fund releases from 2007 to 2009 for projects identified by congressmen, showed that there were more fake NGOs not connected to Janet Lim-Napoles that handled even bigger funds.

Auditors found other gray areas that include lack of track record of KMFI as it was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission only in 2006; the NGO had no legitimate business address with its address is the same as the C. C. Barredo; and no accreditation process to determine the capacity of KMFI to undertake projects.

This paper learned that Kaagapay Magpakailanman Foundation was able to bag at least 12 projects amounting to some P90.756 million.

It has operated in Albay where former Albay Rep. Reno Lim was linked to the supposed anomalous use of pork barrel funds worth P27 million in 2007.

According to the ombudsman, in 2007, Lim requested the release of P30 million of his PDAF and chose the Technology Resource Center as implementing agency with the KMFI as the non-government organization partner.

In a press release, the ombudsman said Lim picked KMFI as NGO partner without going through a public bidding.

The KMFI has also operated in Mindoro Oriental in 2011. Public auditors found signs of possible irregularities in the way public money was possibly misused.

The COA records show that Mindoro Oriental Rep. Alfonso Umali Jr. allegedly gave P1.043 million of his pork barrel funds to KMFI.

“The PDAF releases were coursed through the National Agribusiness Corp, a government-owned and controlled corporation acting as the corporate arm of the Department of Agriculture,” the COA report reads in part.

In a 2013 report, GMA News Research tagged Soriano, Marilou Ferrer, Godofredo Roque, and Francisca Mercado as the people behind KMFI.

The GMA News Research team tried to locate the people behind KMFI but were never able to find them.

“For someone whose foundations received millions of funds for the implementation of government projects, Godofredo Roque is hard to locate. His six foundations have offices in Manila, Quezon City, Pasig, and Valenzuela; these offices are themselves hard to find, are nonexistent, or are staffed by people who could not provide details on where Roque could be located,” the GMA News Research report reads. (with research by Cong B. Corrales)