MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice will file cases of falsification of public documents before the Ombudsman against a lawmaker and four others who faked their Special Allotment Release Orders (SARO).
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima identified the lawmaker to be charged as Aklan Rep. Teoderico Haresco Jr. The four others who will also be charged are Mary Ann Castillo, a consultant of Haresco; Emmanuel Raza, congressional staff of Zamboanga City Rep. Lilia Nuno; Elvie Rafael, driver of Department of Budget and Management (DBM) undersecretary Mario Relampagos; and Bhernie Beltran, a consultant of DBM.
The National Bureau of Investigation has cleared DBM Undersecretary Mario Relampagos, but included his driver in the list of respondents.
De Lima explained that Relampagos was not included because the NBI found insufficient evidence to file a case against him.
Based on the NBI’s investigation, the 77 million peso worth of SARO for region 6 was endorsed by Castillo who served as Haresco’s consultant.
However, Castillo claimed that the SARO came from someone she was not familiar with. The NBI concluded that Castillo did not want to identify her source on the SARO.
(Eagle News Service, with reports from Juliet Caranguian)
