Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. on
Thursday said it was just proper for former commissioner Augusto Lagman
to return the intelligence funds given to him in 2011.
Brillantes admitted that the poll body's commissioners have been receiving intelligence fund allocations in dealing with election-related cases.
He said the 2011 intelligence funds for Lagman worth P1.25 million
needed to be returned after the latter did not use them for their
intended purposes.
Lagman vacated his post in 2012 after not being re-appointed by President Benigno Aquino III.
"Kinuha niya 'yung pera, 'yung P1.25 milyon. Dineposito niya sa
account niya. Apparently hindi niya nagastos. Noong hindi siya
na-reappoint, dapat niyang isauli. Bakit niya ipinagmamalaki niya na
sinoli niya? Bakit niya ipinagmamayabang na sinauli niya?" Brillantes
told dzMM.
"Kung wala siyang intelligence, wala siyang ginastos, eh di isauli niya. Obligasyon niyang isoli."
Lagman, in a statement issued on Tuesday, raised the matter of the
intelligence funds poll executives supposedly get -- amounting to P1.25
million in 2011.
"An area where I definitely did not accomplish anything was
'intelligence' work. I didn't even know that Commission on Elections
(Comelec) commissioners had that function," he said.
"Sometime in 2011, I received a check payable to me for P1 million,
followed a few months later by another P250,000, as 'intelligence' fund,
or 'I.F.', as they referred to it. Presumably, all Commissioners
received an equal amount, with the Chairman, as mentioned by one of the
Commissioners, receiving double that," he added.
Lagman said he returned the money after holding on to it for a few
months, and only after he felt that he was being made to sign a false
liquidation.
"Thinking that there might be need for the fund in the future, I
deposited it in my bank account. In early 2012, somebody from [Comelec]
finance asked me to sign a document (just one sheet) that would
liquidate the fund. The document basically said that I spent the amount
on a variety of activities, none of which I actually did. I therefore
refused to sign the document and said that I would just return the
money, still untouched," he said.
Lagman revealed the questionable circumstances behind the money:
"The [Comelec] Director for Finance came to see me and explained that
all I needed to do was sign the document and the fund would
automatically be liquidated. No receipts needed to be presented. After
several minutes of discussion, I said that I chose to return the money –
and I promptly wrote out a check – and asked him to issue me an
official receipt for it. Which he did."
Lagman added that an election lawyer told him that he was the only commissioner to return the funds.
Brillantes, however, said Lagman may have mistaken the supposed documents for liquidation papers.
"Hindi iyon liquidiation. Nakalagay doon, na sinasabi ng finance
officer, na ito ang pwedeng paggamitan [ng pondo]. Hindi iyon ang
liquidation," the poll body chief said.
For 2013, the Comelec has a budget of P8.26 billion, and there is no entry in it for intelligence funds.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM), however, clarified
that based on the general provisions of the 2013 budget, Comelec was
given P30 million in confidential and intelligence funds.
Brillantes, for his part, said he was only referring to Lagman's accomplishments as far as the automation of elections is concerned.
"Wala siyang accomplishment as far as the automated elections is concerned. Ang biggest accomplishment niya--he decided on 400 cases, na hindi naman siya abugado," Brillantes said.
