Officer said he questioned dela Paz's request for P10M

MANILA, Philippines – An officer of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Saturday said he warned his superiors the request of former PNP comptroller Eliseo dela Paz to take P10 million from police intelligence funds for the delegation to the 77th Interpol Assembly in St. Petersburg, Russia was “unusual." Testifying at the Senate hearing on the “euro general scandal," Superintendent Samuel Rodriguez, disbursing officer for directorate for intelligence, said that because of the irregularity of the request, he informed his immediate officer, finance services chief Chief Superintendent Orlando Pestaño. He said the request was relayed to him by Senior Superintendent Tomas Rentoy III, chief of the PNP budget division. “I was told to have a P10 million fund available for the release to Police Director dela Paz (I was told) by Police Senior Superintendent Rentoy," said Rodriguez. “I made a notification addressed to my immediate officer police superintendent Pestaño that there will be a violation of some auditing roles so I made it a point to notify him through memo and I submitted it to him and then I also made a memo and I submitted to police superintendent Rentoy informing police director dela Paz that there is a violation with regard to the release of cash to be sourced from the intelligence and confidential funds," said Rodriguez. Rodriguez, however, said Pestaño told him to wait for the “clearance or approval" of dela Paz. Senators were baffled as it became apparent that dela Paz, who requested for the funds, was also the one supposed to approve of the request as comptroller. “Dela Paz asked Rentoy, Rentoy asked Rodriguez, Rodriguez asked Pestaño, Pestaño asked dela Paz," Sen. Manuel Roxas II pointed out. “So closed loop ito," Roxas said. For his part, Pestaño said he assumed the transaction was “regular" as dela Paz assured him that dela Paz would talk to the directorate for intelligence about the funds. “The moment that Director dela Paz told me that ‘ako na lang bahala diyan, ako na mage-explain sa DI dyan,’ directorate for intelligence, so I presumed na walang irregularities," said Pestaño. Dela Paz admitted that he was both the requesting and approving party, saying “there is a need for such fund." “I take the full responsibility on this. No scapegoat dito. Yun po ang katotohanan," said dela Paz upon the interpellation of Sen. Rodolfo Biazon. Dela Paz said out of the P10 million, more than P2 million was used for travel and hotel accommodations, among others. The police officials made the statements during the joint hearing of the Senate Foreign Affairs and Blue Ribbon committees. Dela Paz was held along with his wife Maria Fe at the Moscow International Airport last month after they were found carrying 105,000 euros without declaring the same when they entered the country. - GMANews.TV