{"id":10514,"date":"2014-05-16T12:40:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T04:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=10514"},"modified":"2014-05-16T12:40:56","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T04:40:56","slug":"pimentel-files-graft-raps-vs-4-da-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/05\/16\/pimentel-files-graft-raps-vs-4-da-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"Pimentel files graft raps vs 4 DA officials"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sen.<\/a>
Sen. Aquilino ‘Koko’ Pimentel. Photo courtesy of Koko Pimentel’s Facebook page.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA — Senator Aquilino \u2018Koko\u2019 Pimentel III has filed before the Office of the Ombudsman criminal and administrative complaints against four senior officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA) for allegedly forging his signature in the fund release for an organic farming project in Surigao del Sur in 2012.<\/p>\n

Named in Pimentel\u2019s complaints were DA undersecretary for administration and finance Antonio Fleta; supervising administrative officer Delia A. Ladera; Charie Sarah D. Saquing, department chief accountant; and Telma C. Tolentino, officer-in-charge of the budget division.<\/p>\n

Pimentel accused them of falsification of a document and violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practice Act and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Pimentel sought the preventive suspension of the four respondents pending investigation.<\/p>\n

“Their continued stay in office may prejudice the just, fair and independent disposition of the cases against them,\u201d Pimentel said.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Pimentel said a syndicate behind the P10-billion pork scam linked to the operation of Janet Lim Napoles had forged his signature \u201cin an attempt to forcibly associate me with their illegal activities, apparently not being able to take \u201cNO\u201d for an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pimentel said his forged signature appeared in a letter dated October 29, 2012 addressed to the agriculture department.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, I have never endorsed any of my PDAF for implementation by any NGO, whether Napoles-controlled or not,\u201d said Pimentel.<\/p>\n

In his affidavit-complaint, Pimentel said the respondents made it appear that he participated in the act, by \u201crequesting the release of P30 million for the Agro-Industrial Enhancement through organic farming\u201d and by choosing or identifying Surigao del Sur as the beneficiary of P10 million for organic farming-related activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not perform any such acts,\u201d the Mindanao lawmaker said.<\/p>\n

He further said Fleta had falsely narrated that the release of the P10 million was \u201cpursuant to a Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) when in fact there was no SARO, as respondent himself admits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pimentel continued that respondents caused \u201cundue injury to the government and the people by releasing the P10 million of appropriated funds \u201cfor a different purpose pursuant to a fake Senate letter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe falsification of my signature in a falsified letter made to appear as having originated from my office, became the basis for the unlawful disbursement of government funds\u2026purportedly for marginal farm families,\u201d Pimentel said.<\/p>\n

Such conduct, Pimentel said, violated the requirements of conduct for public officials under Sec. 4 or Republic Act 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials.<\/p>\n

Pimentel was included in the Janet Lim Napoles list of at least 100 individuals, including at least 13 senators, who made transactions with Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA — Senator Aquilino \u2018Koko\u2019 Pimentel III has filed before the Office of the Ombudsman criminal and administrative complaints against …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":10515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,95],"tags":[1617,3447,392],"class_list":["post-10514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-department-of-agriculture","tag-koko-pimentel","tag-pdaf-scam","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}