By Jun Lira
SURIGAO CITY— Exactly thirty days after an alleged plunder case was filed against him,
Representative Francisco Matugas gave his adversaries a lesson they would never
forget when on March 1 he filed a perjury case with a P10-million claim for
moral damages before the City Prosecutor’s Office.
Docketed
as I.S No. XIII-OS-INV-13B-00056, the case stemmed from the executed complaint-affidavit
for plunder which the lawmaker believed had contained malicious imputations intended
to besmirch his good reputation and social standing.
Named
as respondents for perjury were local historian Fernando Almeda, Jr., lawyer
Victor Bernal, activist Edgardo Canda and Lolito Golo who had earlier accused
Matugas for Plunder (Violation of R.A. No. 7080) before the Office of the
Ombudsman on January 30, 2013.
They
alleged that the first district solon was allotted and had received several
millions of pesos as his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) but had malversed,
through illegal expenditure, a total amount of P63,550,000.00 from the said
fund when he distributed the same for use in intelligence and anti-insurgency
activities in fourteen towns of Surigao del Norte. They argued the said act of
Matugas was prohibited by law pursuant to the Decision dated September 13, 2012
of the Commission On Audit (COA) EN BANC.
Matugas
said Almeda and his cohorts were clearly liable for perjury for making
untruthful statements, for falsely testifying under oath and in making a
willful and deliberate assertion of falsehood.
He
denied having allotted, received and distributed several millions of pesos to
mayors.
“My
only participation in the questioned transactions was merely to make
endorsements/recommendations as to the proposed allotments. I categorically
deny that the PDAF funds were ‘received’ much more ‘distributed’ by me as
alleged,” the lawmaker clarified.
Matugas
said the alleged plundered amount of P63,550,000.00 was a deliberate falsehood
as he only requested/endorsed for funding the total amount of P49,500,000.00
which was below the threshold amount required under the law penalizing the
crime of Plunder.
“If
these people had only made a careful scrutiny of readily available documents,
they would have found out that P14,050,000.00 out of P63,550,000.00 belonged to
PDAF allocations under Cong. Guillermo Romarate, Jr., as well as to other
allocations for entirely different purposes,” Matugas disclosed.
The
first district solon also bared as a deliberate assertion of falsehood the
allegations of Almeda and his minions that fifteen municipalities were involved
as subject to disallowances/suspensions covered by the said COA decision when there
was only ten.
Matugas
condemned as another asserted falsehood the group’s allegation in the plunder
complaint that “no less than the COA itself justified the filing of criminal
and administrative cases against Congressman Matugas” when no such statement
could be found in the said COA decision and the said ruling had not yet
attained finality in view of a motion for reconsideration filed on time.
As
to accusations that he made illegal distributions of PDAF funds to
municipalities outside his congressional jurisdiction, Matugas said the same
was a patently false assertion as there was no prohibition under the provisions
of General Appropriations Act and other related laws. He even cited a COA
ruling upholding the allocation of PDAF funds to districts other than that of
the concerned Congressman as legal.
Matugas
said Almeda’s group made deliberate and malicious accusations as a calculated
and sinister method adopted to support their allegation that the amount
‘received’ and ‘distributed’ to local governments was more than Fifty Million
Pesos (Php50,000,000.00) to justify a case for alleged Plunder to stand.
As
of press time, Almeda’s group could not be reached for comment. (Jun Lira/ST)
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