With practically all former lawmakers possibly tainted with involvement in the infamous pork barrel scandal, those who were not found in the elite list (if there’s any) are leaving up to their monikers as “honorables”. This developed as even such former Bohol lawmakers like Edgar Chatto, now Bohol governor; Roberto Cajes, former Trinidad mayor; Eladio Jala now a commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Adam Relson Jala, now new city councilor, were not spared from accusations that they too partook in the “pork largesse” using fictitious Non-Government Organizations (NGO). In the COA Audit Report being published in the Internet, the fundings for the priority development programs and projects identified by the legislators are included in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) as a lump sum appropriation under the PDAF for soft projects and under Locally-Funded Projects –Various Infrastructure including Local Project (VILP) of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for hard projects.

The report said that the practice of providing certain amount for the projects of the legislators started in 1989. For calendar years 2007 to 2009, the projects eligible for funding under PDAF are described as soft projects under the category of education, health, livelihood, comprehensive integrated delivery of services, financial to address specific pro-poor programs of the government, historical, arts and culture, peace and order and small infrastructure projects such as irrigation, rural electrification, water supply, housing and forest management. The total budget included for the term 2007 to 2009 GAA’s for PDAF and VILP amounted to P79.878 billion. For soft projects, the GAA set aside P29.004 billion while P50.874B was set aside for hard projects. These funds were allocated for the priority programs and projects of the legislators in the amount of P70 million for every congressman and partylist representatives and P200 million for each senator.

The audit report disclosed that the PDAF and the VILP were not properly released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and not appropriately, efficiently and effectively utilized by the implementing agencies (IAs). It showed that 356 legislators and of a certain Luis Abalos who is not, however, a member of the 13th and 14th congress. For Bohol, it included the soft allocation fund of the following: Roberto C. Cajes – P68.115 million for the second district; Edgardo M. Chatto – P58.300 million for the first district and Adam Relson L. Jala – P32.200 million and Eladio M. Jala – P23.100 million for the third district.

JALA’S SIDE

On the part of the Jalas, they admitted that there was budget in their Priority Development Assistant Fund (PDAF) being implemented by the regional office of the Department of Agriculture (DA). According to the Jalas, they cannot come up with the actual fund being set aside for livelihood, scholarship and medical assistance. The SEC commissioner said that the investigation now is still focused on the congressmen and senators for the term 2007-2009 where he was not the congressman at that time. On the part of the city councilor who served as representative in the third district next to his father, the DA is the implementing agency of the fund where part of the PDAF fund was released. The elder Jala added that it was the DA who identified the NGOs who would receive the funds as the DA had the list of the NGOs duly accredited. The city councilor said that the NGO projects which were the recipients of his PDAF funds being implemented by the DA was completely implemented. He was even been able to attend the trainings and seminars of the projects. However, he said that he did not have the control in the disbursement of funds because it was the NGO being identified by the DA as the one which received the funds.

CAJES SIDE

In an interview with GMA 7, Cajes, a lawyer, replied: “I’m sure the signatures appearing in most of the documents submitted by these NGO’s in my name are not my genuine signatures. I just cannot believe the amounts which exceeded my PDAF”. Cajes said that these NGO’s should not have been accredited by the implementing agencies in the first place. The ex-second district solon said that he was for the abolition of the PDAF but pending realization it is better to suspend it immediately to avoid more innocent lawmakers to be the next victims of these NGO’s. Cajes claimed that he has complete records of beneficiaries who have received the items and trainings from my PDAF. He was surprised to discover that the many names of the beneficiaries who received the items and trainings were not the same names submitted by some NGO’s to the implementing agencies.