How Sabio enjoys public
service
One of many public officials who extremely enjoy serving the
state is Camilo Sabio, chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good
Government.
While Executive Order No. 1 of President Aquino mandates that
PCGG officials should not be paid more than P10,000 a month, plus reasonable
allowances, Sabio seems to be spending taxpayers money with complete abandon.
This space was furnished with documents from members of the
PCGG Employees Association showing how wantonly Sabio abuses his position.
For example, in 2006, he was paid close to P10 million by
Mid-Pasig, a Marcos firm surrendered to the state by Jose Y. Campos.
The company may no longer be considered sequestered. The
surrender gave the state the right to own the company. The Marcoses never even
contested the surrender.
In fact, the shares that it owned in Philippine Overseas
Telecommunications are now in the name of the Republic of the Philippines as
proven by a stock certificate.
Sabio was under investigation by the Presidential Anti-|Graft
Commission.
Patently illegal
Sabio amassed the P10 million bounty – or is it loot – on
various dates and under various circumstances.
Most common was cash advances. On March 13, 2006, Mid Pasig
gave Sabio P2 million in cash advance.
What I find patently illegal are numerous amounts paid to
Sabio and recorded as "remittance to national treasury coursed through Chairman
Sabio per his request."
He was paid P1.3 million on May 25, 2006 on the basis of this
justification.
Sabio is a lawyer. He was a former fiscal and one of the
assistants of Manuel Lazaro when the latter was head of the Office of Government
Corporate Counsel.
He should have known that payments to the National Treasury
cannot be coursed in his name.
We do not know whether he remitted the money to the
government.
I am a taxpayer. I have the right to demand from Sabio
documents or proof that the amount paid in his name went to the state.
Without that proof, Sabio should be immediately dismissed.
After all he is under investigation.
Sabio’s multi-party trip
My source in the PCGG told me that Sabio just came back from
a trip to Washington DC. It must have been an official mission.
The wonder of wonders is the shamelessness of Sabio in
bringing along in the trip seven other persons, including his wife.
The entourage of eight included his daughter, son-in-law, two
assistants, and a lawyer-friend rumored to be aspiring to be appointed PCGG
commissioner with Sabio’s support.
What in heaven’s name have I got to do with wherever he goes
with what ever number of people who tag along with him?
I am infuriated by the claim of my spy in the PCGG that each
one was given $10,000 in allowances.
I am told that the money was taken from the interest income
accounts of the PCGG.
This is criminal. And as a lawyer Sabio knows it but ignores
the possible consequences.
This is thievery. Sabio should not go unpunished.
The first step should be dismissal. The second should be
filing of criminal charges.
But the anti-graft body of the President is taking too long
to move.
Locsin, this time
My informant told me that Enrique Locsin appeared before the
session en banc of the PCGG.
Without much ado, he told the commissioners that he wanted to
sit in the boards of all Philcomsat companies.
The commissioners told him the PCGG needed an "I desire"
letter from the President. They also wanted to know from Locsin or the President
who will be replaced in those boards if the PCGG appoints him.
He did not have a word for an answer.
I remember when Senator Dick Gordon asked him questions about
Philcomsat Holdings.
Locsin gave an honest answer. He said he did not know a damn
thing about the operations of the company.
I should have told my friend Dick about Locsin’s role, big or
small, in the looting of the funds of Philcomsat Holdings.
He has a role. Maybe that’s why he wants to sit in all the
boards of Philcomsat companies, including Philcomsat Holdings.
Maybe that is why he told the Gordon committee he did not
know anything.
SC acts against Lokin
A full-dress investigation in the Supreme Court is underway
regarding the P2 million lawyer Luis K. Lokin claimed was used as representation
expenses to obtain an injunction.
I happen to know that personally. I have the documents. In
fact, I testified before a Supreme Court panel and presented to the members the
documents.
I told the panel I can produce the original.
The amount was paid under BPI Check No. 309381 dated August
16, 2006.
The funny part is that the check was made out in the name of
Lokin/Veronica Nepomuceno and co-signed by Lokin himself and Manuel Andal, a
PCGG nominee.
The check did not have an endorsement on the dorsal side. It
was deposited with Security Bank in Tondo to account No. 0442234141-00-1 in the
name of Beng Ling Sy. The account was closed on Feb. 29 last year.
Is there a Veronica Nepomuceno? Let the panel composed of
Associate Justices Alicia Martinez, (chair)Teresita de Castro and Conchita
Carpio Morales ask Lokin to produce the body of Nepomuceno.
