TACLOBAN CITY -- THE TOP OFFICIAL OF THE Department of Public Works and Highways here took it upon himself to expose a financial scam right in his own turf.

Engineer Jaime Pacanan, DPWH director for Eastern Visayas, exposed anomalous transactions involving P153 million worth of government funds in 2003 and 2004 at the Tacloban Sub-District Engineer’s Office of the DPWH.

He said in a news conference on Saturday that three DPWH officials were involved in the anomaly that included forgery of signatures, falsification of public documents, and double or triple payments for the same scope of several public works projects in Tacloban.

Pacanan, however, declined to identify the three pending the decision of DPWH central office. But he said two had since retired from the service. The third had been declared absent without leave (Awol).

Pacanan said his investigation team collated 18 sets of documents that contained the questionable transactions. The amount involved totaled P152,772,521.

“I would like to show the country that the DPWH still has a good image behind its present dubious reputation,” Pacanan said, when asked about the motive of his revelation.

“I’m willing to pay the price,” he added, in response to the warning about the risks he faced for his exposé.

Pacanan was tipped about the anomaly in September last year by the regional director of the Department of Budget and Management, who told him about double or triple payments for the same projects administered by the Tacloban sub-district office.

Pacanan requested an investigation of the scam by the Internal Audit Service (IAS) of the DPWH national office.

At the same time, he formed a regional investigation team to produce a parallel report to complement the IAS report, which was not shown to him.

The local team appended to their document the Commission on Audit report on the issue.

He also asked the National Bureau of Investigation to look into the issue.

In Legazpi City, DPWH regional office director Orlando Roces chose to keep quiet after creating an uproar for alluding to an alleged list of media personalities receiving regular allowances from his office.

Local journalists have dared Roces to reveal the names of media persons allegedly receiving “payola” from his office.

Roces mentioned the alleged list of media personalities in the DPWH payola to broadcaster Tom Jarilla of RGMA when the latter recently solicited assistance for the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP) Albay Chapter Summer Sportsfest.

The list reportedly included some 50 journalists, majority of whom are from Camarines Sur province, who are in the DPWH Bicol payroll.

Irate mediamen have demanded from Roces to name names to vindicate those who are not involved.

The director, however, refused to make further comments on the issue. With a report from Edgar Alejo, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau

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