Isabela vice governor faces plunder raps

ISABELA, Philippines — Isabela Vice Gov. Faustino Dy III and 12 other provincial officials are facing charges over an alleged anomalous road project.

In a 12-page complaint-affidavit filed before the Office of the Ombudsman on July 27, former mayor Manuel Siquian of Angadanan town said Dy and his co-accused should be investigated for plunder, violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and malversation of public funds.

Provincial treasurer Maria Theresa Araneta-Flores, accountant Pete Gerald Javier, assistant accountant Rosana Marquez, budget officer and bids and awards committee member Elsa Pastrana, acting legal officer and BAC vice chairman James Francis Meer, auditor Marilyn Lopez, BAC chairman Rodrigo Sawit, BAC members Virgilio Lorenzo and Cherry Gregorio, BAC secretariat Mary Ann Ballesteros and BAC technical working group members Eduardo Cabantac and Angelo Naui are the other respondents.

Clemente Pancho, vice president of CM Pancho Construction Inc. as well as Erika Caitlin Dy and former Isabela governor Faustino Dy Jr., president and incorporator, respectively, of Stagno Properties Corp. were also named respondents.

Faustino Jr. is the half-brother of the incumbent vice governor, Faustino III.

The complaint stemmed from the alleged anomalous rehabilitation and improvement of the 82-kilometer Ilagan-Diviclan Isabela Road.

The project was awarded to CM Pancho Construction Inc. in 2015, when Dy was governor. It was funded through a P1.5-billion loan obtained from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).

Siquian said there was no public bidding, adding that the project was ovepriced at P20 million per kilometer.

He said the project would also give “unwarranted benefits” to the Dy family as the road leads to Honeymoon Island, a beach property owned by the Dy family.

Siquian said P1.388 billion was paid to CM Pancho Construction as of March 2018, which was equivalent to 96 percent of the total contract cost even though the project was only 78.9 percent complete as of February.