SUMMONED
House panel subpoenas 3 Mexico town suppliers in questioned P149-M deals
THE House Committee on Public Accounts has moved to subpoena three suppliers of the municipal government of Mexico in Pampanga.
The committee, chaired by Abang Lingkod Party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano on Wednesday decided to subpoena the suppliers in connection with its inquiry into P149-million worth of allegedly anomalous deals entered into by the town under Mayor Teddy Tumang.
Subpoenaed were Aedy Tai Yang, Rizalito Dizon and Roberto Tugade.
The summonses were issued upon motion of Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, seconded by Cavite Rep. Elpidio “Pidi” Barzaga Jr.
Yang, Dizon and Tugade were consistently absent from committee hearings despite repeated invitations.
Dizon and Tugade were equipment and medicine suppliers.
In the case of Yang, the committee has learned that he sold a one-hectare lot to the Mexico municipal government for P29.5 million, or P2,950 per square meter.
In a letter to Paduano dated last August 2, Yang said he could not attend the inquiry that day due to “previous commitments.”
“Rest assured, if my presence is required in succeeding committee hearings, I am more willing to attend the same,” he said.
However, he did not show up in Wednesday’s hearing despite the committee’s invitation.
Paduano asked the provincial command of the Philippine National Police in Pampanga to help locate the three witnesses.
Yang’s lot, along with another 1.8-hectare parcel owned by couple Arnel and Sonia Pangilinan, was to be the site of the new municipal town hall and convention center in Barangay San Antonio.
The Pangilinans sold their property to Mexico for P2,800 per square meter, for a total of a little over P50 million.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Rep. Rodante Marcoleta of Sagip Party-list questioned what he described as the questionable circumstances under which Yang and the Pangilinan couple bought their lots from farmers in Barangay San Antonio and sold them to the Mexico municipal government six months later for a huge profit.
Marcoleta said Yang and the Pangilinans acquired their lots on the same day, July 11, 2022.
He said the deeds of absolute sale of the buyers were allegedly notarized by the same lawyer, and the lot titles of the former owners were cancelled by the Register of Deeds on the same day.
“Two days later, the Register of Deeds issued new titles to Mr. Yang and the Pangilinan couple. Ang lakas niyo sa Register of Deeds,” he said.
Marcoleta stressed that the confluence and timing of events relating to the purchase by Yang and the Pangilinan couple of their lots in San Antonio and their sale to the municipal government were allegedly highly suspicious.
He also said Mayor Tumang should have used the municipal government’s option to acquire the lots through expropriation.
“Since these were purchased for P300 per square meter, you could have offered P500 and saved your town about P65 million. The sellers would have had no choice but to sell because it is the right of government to resort to expropriation in case of a badly needed property,” he
said.
Tumang responded that he was not aware that expropriation was available in procuring land for a town hall and convention center, though he knew that this option could be used in the case of road projects.
After auditing the P149-million worth of allegedly anomalous deals, the Commission on Audit (CoA) has disallowed P82 million, of which Mayor Tumang has personally reimbursed P43 million.
Some P39 million has not been returned, prompting the CoA to forward its fraud audit report to the Office of the Ombudsman.
In the course of Wednesday’s hearing, the committee approved a motion presented by Marcoleta for the CoA to conduct another fraud audit on the acquisition of the two lots worth a combined P79.5 million by the Mexico municipal government.
Also during the hearing, an official of the Development Bank of the Philippines informed the committee that the bank has started a process to cancel the P950-million loan it had approved for Mexico’s construction of a new town hall and a convention center due to adverse “material information” that has surfaced in the Paduano panel’s inquiry.
