Ex-Albay solon pleads not guilty in ‘pork’ scam case

Former Albay Representative Reno Gutlay Lim on Friday pleaded not guilty before the Sandiganbayan over the alleged misuse of P27 million of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in 2007.

Lim entered his plea during his conditional arraignment in the Second Division for four counts each of violation of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and malversation so that he may be allowed to travel to the United States for seven days.

In his travel motion, Lim said he will travel to New York City to attend a business meeting in his business venture at India-based Metro Telworks Private Limited.

Lim said the meeting was initially slated from June 9 to 13 in Bangalore, India, but was rescheduled in New York.

The former lawmaker added he also intends to visit his youngest brother in Atlanta, Georgia.

Lim, according to Ombubsman investigators, requested the release of his PDAF, or pork barrel, amounting to P30 million for the procurement of 8,000 sets of livelihood instructional materials and technology kits for the supposed implementation of his livelihood assistance project.

Records revealed that Lim had personally identified Techonology Resource Center as the implementing agency for his project and tapped Kaagapay Magpakailanman Foundation, Inc. (KMFI) as non-government organization-partner without public bidding.

The Ombudsman also cited a Commission on Audit (COA) report stating that KMFI does not have the track record to carry out the project as it was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission only in late 2006.

The COA report further revealed that KMFI has no legitimate business and that the payment of P27 million was made to KMFI before the signing of the memorandum of agreement in 2008.

The Sandiganbayan had denied the quashal motion of Lim who claimed that there was an inordinate delay of five years in his case from the time COA conducted a special audit in 2011 until the filing of charges in 2016.

The Sandiganbayan said this is not considered "vexatious, capricious and oppressive" since the proceedings at COA and the Ombudsman are separate in nature.

"Necessarily, the COA had to first conduct special audits, followed by the fact-finding investigation and thereafter preliminary investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman. The evidence consisted of voluminous documents, and complicated factual and legal issues had to be addressed," the Sandiganbayan said.

"Here, movant only made a mathematical reckoning of the time involved in the COA special audits, fact-finding and preliminary investigation, and then summarily contended that there was a violation of his right to speedy disposition of cases," it added. —KBK, GMA News