The Office of the Ombudsman (File photo by NINO JESUS ORBETA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Former North Cotabato representative and dismissed vice governor Gregorio Ipong was charged anew with a second set of charges related to pork barrel scam, this time involving the alleged misuse of his P4.9 million Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
According to the charge information, Ipong was charged by prosecutors from the Office of the Ombudsman of one count each of graft and malversation in the anomalous use of his P4.9 million PDAF for ghost projects to gain kickbacks in 2007.
搁贰础顿:听Dismissed Cotabato vice gov faces second set of graft charges
Ipong was accused of graft or violation of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for causing undue injury to government and giving unwarranted benefits to the bogus foundation Aaron Foundation Philippines Inc. (AFPI).
The former lawmaker was accused of endorsing without public bidding the bogus NGO as 鈥減roject partner鈥� of the defunct implementing agency Technology Resource Center (TRC) to implement Ipong鈥檚 PDAF projects, which ended up being non-existent.
Ipong also endorsed the NGO even though it was unqualified and unaccredited to implement the projects, the Ombudsman prosecution said.
He was also accused of malversation under the Revised Penal Code for 鈥渕isappropriat(ing) the PDAF-drawn public funds instead of implementing the PDAF-drawn projects.鈥�
The prosecution recommended a P30,000 bail for the graft charge and a P40,000 bail for the malversation charge.
Ipong鈥檚 co-accused include TRC officials Antonio Ortiz, Dennis Cunanan, and Marivic Jover, and AFPI President Alfredo Ronquillo.
The implementing agency officials were charged for releasing the pork barrel funds to the bogus foundation without verifying the NGO鈥檚 accreditation and qualifications.
Ipong was first charged with聽graft and malversation charges over the alleged misuse of his P9.6 million聽pork聽barrel聽fund in 2007.
搁贰础顿:听Ex-Cotabato lawmaker seeks dismissal of P9.6-M pork charges
Ipong was earlier dismissed by the Ombudsman in 2016聽in connection with his pork barrel scam indictment. JPV