Amid anonymous allegations, OGCC chief claims some subordinates got 'secret' allowances

Government corporate counsel Rudolf Philip Jurado on Thursday hit back at critics from within the office he leads, alleging some subordinates received "secret" allowances from state-owned corporations and brushing off accusations about his own supposedly questionable moves.

Jurado, who may be next on President Rodrigo Duterte's chopping block, is accused of approving a 75-year lease for a casino-hotel project and of rendering a contentious legal opinion on a territorial concern of the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone (APECO).

An "anonymous group of OGCC (Office of the Government Corporate Counsel) lawyers" raised these allegations in a press statement on Wednesday.

In response, Jurado said the issue started with a finding of the Commission on Audit (COA) that OGCC lawyers have been receiving allowances directly from Government Owned or Controlled Corporations (GOCCs), their primary clients, without passing through official accounting and taxation.

He said he had been "constrained" to inform client GOCCs to cease from further giving allowances "secretly" to the OGCC's lawyers, after the lawyers themselves "refused" to comply with his earlier directive.

"Now, these OGCC lawyers are trying to malign my reputation by alleging that I am supposedly incompetent and corrupt," he said in a statement on Thursday.

75-year casino permit?

The "anonymous group of OGCC lawyers" alleged in their statement that Jurado "approved and justified a 75-year lease granted to a foreign corporation to build a casino-hotel" without public bidding and despite the Nayong Pilipino Foundation's mandate to promote Filipino cultural heritage and values through infrastructure.

In his own statement, Jurado claimed he did not know which client GOCC his critics were referring to: "I hope that the OGCC lawyers could show this 75-year casino permit I supposedly issued."

Neither he nor his accusers named any GOCC, but he explained they should have also said that the client can lease its property "for 50 years, renewable for another 25 years," adding that his office has also imposed certain requirements that would ensure the contract would not be disadvantageous to the government.

"...[T]hese 12 conditions include a requirement that the property intended to be leased should be used as an Amusement/Cultural Park which will showcase Filipino culture (as oppose(d) to the GOCC lawyers' allegation of a casino)," he said.

Questionable legal opinion on APECO?

Jurado's critics also accused him of rendering a "questionable legal justification for an economic zone's authority to issue online gambling permits outside its territorial jursidiction and boundaries."

Jurado said APECO had asked for a legal opinion on whether its amended charter allowed it to operate outside the Aurora Economic Zone and/or PEZA controlled areas.

The draft opinion said the charter allowed it. But deputy government corporate counsel Elpidio Vega reversed the draft. When the revised draft reached his office, Jurado, citing the amended charter, said he "agreed" with the earlier draft.

"The OGCC lawyers alleged that there was corruption in the APECO's legal opinion. There is none, and it can be verified by simply going over the legal opinion itself," he said.

Next on Duterte's chopping block?

The unnamed lawyers, in their statement, said Jurado was "grasping at straws to shamelessly hold on to an appointive position."

His "false" charge of "excessive" allowances against OGCC lawyers are "surprising," since he approved of all paper work pertaining to their allowances, they said.

"It is extremely surprising that, after approving and signing all the disbursement vouchers and checks as well as releasing of the allowances of all OGCC lawyers, GCC Jurado now maligns and falsely accuses the OGCC lawyers of receiving excessive allowances that he himself approved," they said.

"The truth will prevail, and no amount of lies and fabrications can divert the attention of the public from the corruption issues he has to face and be accountable for."

On May 20, Duterte said "maybe I'll fire the corporate [counsel] tomorrow." At that time, his spokesman Harry Roque had no additional information to offer.

Duterte has fired several government officials over allegations of corruption since he assumed the presidency almost two years ago. —JST, GMA News