FORMER Cagayan de Oro mayor Constantino Jaraula yesterday maintained his innocence in the wake of a Sandiganbayan ruling that rejected his motion to quash the 2014 graft case filed against him by the Office of the Ombudsman.
“I really had nothing to do with that,” said Jaraula of the deals between the agriculture department and the Philippine Social Development Foundation Inc. (PDSFI), a non-government organization which the ombudsman linked to alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles.
The ombudsman has accused Jaraula of conspiring with Department of Agriculture (DA) officials and PDSFI in buying fertilizers for non-existing farmer-beneficiaries from December 2003 to July 2004, an allegation the former mayor denied.
Jaraula, who was a congressman at that time, said he had nothing to do with the fertilizer purchases and distribution even as he denied that the funds used were pork barrel allocations.
Jaraula said it was the then DA regional director Rufo Chan who informed him about the fertilizer program and the DA funds set aside for it.
“He (Chan) told me it was supposed to be implemented by district, nationwide, and it had to pass through the congressional district offices. I then told him to coordinate with the City Agriculture Office,” he said.
Jaraula said the purchases were done in Cebu by the DA regional office and that no funds actually passed through his congressional office. He said his office’s involvement was “only in paper.”
He also denied that the funds used in the fertilizer purchases, some P3 million, were part of his pork barrel allocation. “These were DA funds.”
He said he had no hand in the fertilizer purchases and distribution, adding that the DA took care of that together with the local agriculture office.
Jaraula’s explanation came following the decision of the Sandiganbayan 2nd Division’s Nov. 5 decision to dismiss his motion to quash the information pertaining to a 2014 graft case on the grounds of “inordinate delay.” (Herbie Gomez)
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