Bataan Techno Park execs charged with graft for pocketing P2.39M

Graft and malversation charges were filed before the Sandiganbayan last week against Lucino A. Duldulao, former vice president of the Bataan Technology Park, Inc., and Oscar G. Macalino, former chief accountant and later finance officer, for allegedly mishandling government funds. Bataan Techno Park is a subsidiary of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA). Duldulao is a retired military officer with a rank of brigadier general when he left the service. Eva V. Miña, graft investigator and prosecution officer of the Office of the Ombudsman, accused the two of illegally diverting P130 million from Bataan Techno Park’s budget into a high yield savings account at the Land Bank of the Philippines and pocketing the interests thereon amounting to P2.39 million. Based on a report by examiners from the Commission on Audit the P130 million, broken down in two tranches of P80 million and P50 million, was supposed to go to the regular account of the Bataan Techno Park. Instead, the sum went “missing" for a nine-month period from November 1996 to August 1997 before being deposited into its regular account. Further inquiries revealed bank instruments showing that the P130 million went into a high-yield account at the Land Bank of the Philippines. Bank records obtained from LBP enabled COA auditors to compute the actual interest earned by the high-yield deposits Miña said all related transactions showed a conspiracy among Duldulao, Macalino and erstwhile Bataan Techno Park president Artemio A. Tadiar, who died before the Ombudsman’s investigation was completed. Demand letters sent by auditors to the defendants directing them to render an accounting of the interests went unheeded leading the Ombudsman to believe that the defendants “misappropriated, embezzled, converted or malversed the sum for their own personal use" or by abandonment or negligence “permitted another person to take the same." Miña recommended that the defendants be held under court custody without bail for the duration of the trial. - GMANews.TV