Sorsogon execs refute allegations of fund misuse under Escudero's leadership

The Sorsogon provincial government on Monday denied allegations of corruption under their former governor and now Senator Francis "Chiz" Escudero, saying that the audit findings cited in a complaint have been addressed.

The local government was referring to the accusations of lawyer Marvin Aceron, who filed multiple complaints for graft, technical malversation, falsification of public documents, among others, against Escudero and other officials over the alleged misuse of P352 million worth of public funds during the senator's tenure as Sorsogon governor. 

Specifically, Aceron alleged that his complaints were anchored on the findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) in its 2021 annual audit report on the Sorsogon provincial government. These include:

• P125.7 million worth of physically impossible, overlapping infrastructure contracts awarded to the same contractors with the same personnel and equipment;
• P15.4 million in national government funds-including P10 million in typhoon relief money—left unimplemented for as long as six years;
• P8.44 million worth of janitorial and laundry contracts supported by falsified documents, conflicting notarizations, and fabricated client references
• P1.66 million in Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) disbursements with defective signatures, missing authorizations, and improper implementation by Board Members; 
• P5.65 million in development projects improperly charged to the 20% Development Fund and outside the approved procurement plan;
• P195.7 million in unreliable Property, Plant, and Equipment accounts, including ghost assets and demolished structures still carried in the books.

“These COA reports are from the different Audit Observation Memoranda (AOM) issued to the officials of the Province of Sorsogon. However, the complainant has not verified if the concerned personnel had satisfactorily complied with the recommendations of the COA with respect to AOMs as reported in COA reports for 2021,” the provincial government said.

“Following the reply, explanations and actions of respondents to the AOMs issued, the COA had not issued any suspension or disallowance to said allegations complained of by Mr. Aceron because the reply, explanations and actions of the respondents complied with the COA’s recommendations as per COA Report 2022,” according to Sorsogon officials.

An AOM is an initial finding on the part of the COA that needs to be rectified by the agency concerned before state auditors make their annual audit report, or the AAR, on the subject agency.

Given the compliance, the Sorsogon government officials said the allegations against Escudero lacked basis.

“This means that the complaint filed recently against Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero, who once served as provincial governor, and the province’s present and former officials with the Office of the Ombudsman, lacked merit and basis, and at best, a product of politicking and harassment,” the local executives said.—LDF, GMA Integrated News