A senator said he believes the Ampatuan clan pocketed the P1.7 billion fund for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), a region that is not under the agrarian reform program. Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said the Ampatuans must be investigated on the missing fund that was withdrawn under “anomalous circumstances” during the first seven months of 2009. He said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) issued five separate disbursements to ARMM acting on the recommendation of Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasserr Pangandaman despite the ARMM's and Department of Agrarian Reform's failure to submit a specific project required to disburse the fund. The senator from Mindanao also questioned the decision to disburse the agrarian reform fund to former ARMM Gov.Zaldy Ampatuan who is now charged with the multiple murder in the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao. Pimentel emphasized that ARMM is not an agrarian reform region. Pimentel added that out of the P1.7 billion disbursed to ARMM composed of five provinces, a total of P500 million went to Maguindanao, citing a DBM report. “I strongly believe that they (Ampatuans) pocketed the money. This may be the source of the unexplained wealth of the Ampatuans. This is from where they bought their properties including their mansions in Maguindanao, Davao City, Metro Manila and others,” Pimentel said. He said he exposed the illegal disbursement of fund a few months earlier but it fell on deaf ears. Pangandaman, Malacanang and other DBM officials kept mum on the complaint, he said. The following were the amounts specified on special allotment release order issued to ARMM: P350 million and P222.7 million on Feb. 15; P322.5 million on June 22; P400 million June 2; and P373 million on July 1. Pimentel asked the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate the alleged anomalous and “scandalous transactions” and ask the Ampatuans, the DAR finance officer and the ARMM Commission on Audit resident auditor to explain the disbursement. “The Office of the Ombudsman should not sleep on the job. If there is evidence of fund misuse, they should file plunder cases against the Ampatuans and their accomplices. They would not be able to build those palatial mansions without the money stolen from government coffers,” Pimetel said. He said he could not understand why ordinary citizens in Maguindanao wallow in povery when ARMM receives budget allocations from many sources. Aside from the annual ARMM Internal Revenue Allotment that Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi should receive, many donor countries and multilateral financing institutions continue to fund the region in Mindanao, Pimentel said.
