Even as the hunt for the fugitive brothers, former Palawan governor Joel Reyes and his brother, Coron Mayor Mario Reyes, is ongoing, we should not forget the Malampaya royalty issue.

The Reyes brothers are accused of masterminding the murder of environmentalist radio commentator “Doc Gerry” Ortega, with a P2-million reward for each of their arrests. They fled as soon as the arrest warrants were issued against them and were reported to have at one point traveled to Vietnam with Joel Reyes using a fake passport under an alias, Joseph Lim Pe.

Why Doc Gerry was murdered has everything to do with Malampaya. You cannot not look into Doc Gerry’s killing without taking into consideration what he died for—what irregularities he found out before he was murdered and who he was pointing to.

Before he was killed by assassins who were allegedly hired by Joel Reyes, Doc Gerry had been telling everybody in his radio program about the misappropriation of the Malampaya funds.

Doc Gerry reported that out of the total P90-billion Malampaya funds, P3.1 billion was earmarked annually as share of the provincial government. However, the local Commission on Audit auditor was only able to account for P520-million.

It is widely believed in Palawan that Doc Gerry was silenced because he was telling everybody that Palawan’s share of Malampaya’s profits were being misused and plundered by the provincial leadership then headed by Joel Reyes as governor.

Doc Gerry had claimed that a chunk of the amount of Malampaya royalties had been laundered into private assets by Reyes.

It is estimated that since Reyes became governor up to the time he stepped down at least P15 billion passed through the provincial government, including its share of Malampaya’s funds, loans and the regular provincial budget.

Yes, billions are involved here, the kind of billions that can get people killed.

If you recall, it was also Joel Reyes, then a spokesman of the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), who owned up to the P500,000 stuffed in paper gift bags that were handed out in Malacañang to congressman and provincial officials after then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo met with them. This was during the time she was being hounded by allegations of corruption and was being threatened with impeachment and popular ouster.

Reyes along with former Eastern Samar Gov. and now congressman Ben Evardone, the LPP secretary at the time, said the P500,000 each that was distributed to Arroyo’s “visitors” came from the LPP’s capability building program (CBP).

Aside from Reyes, Doc Gerry had also accused incumbent Palawan Gov. Abraham Mitra and former Vice Gov. Dave Ponce de Leon of being involved in acts of corruption in connection with the royalty money from Malampaya.

After he was murdered, what Doc Gerry was telling everybody proved to be true.

COA recommended the filing of graft and criminal charges against Reyes and members of the provincial bids and awards committee under his administration for alleged irregularities in the use of nearly P3 billion in Malampaya funds.

The COA provided in detail alleged anomalies by the Reyes administration, indicating that it had favored certain private contractors to corner over 200 infrastructure projects funded by Malampaya royalty.

The projects ranged from day care centers, that cost a total of P30 million, to a reclamation project that cost over P400 million.

COA has no prosecutorial powers of its own and can only recommend the filing of charges against Reyes and other provincial officials. We cannot just let the COA investigation come to naught.

President Aquino should direct Justice Secretary Leila De Lima to act on the COA report on Malampaya. He should also prevent the release of new Malampaya funds until previous releases are properly accounted for and safety measures are in place to ensure that the people of Palawan benefit from these royalties and they just don’t line the pockets of corrupt officials.

This is important considering the Department of Energy is bidding out the gas sale and purchase agreement for additional natural gas supply that could still be extracted from the Malampaya gas project. Palawan would be expecting more royalties from the sale.

Senators had previously demanded a full accounting of some P100 billion in allegedly missing revenue that the government earned from the Malampaya gas project in Palawan. This was exposed during a hearing of the Senate ways and means committee in September last year.

In that hearing, Senate President Enrile noted that the government was also losing huge foregone revenues owing to the tax exemption granted by the previous administration to the Malampaya project operators—Shell Philippines Exploration BV and Chevron Texaco.

Since then, it seems no concrete answers have yet to be given.

I urge Senate President Enrile to conduct another Senate hearing to get a full accounting on how the Malampaya funds are being spent.

Please, sir, the people and the state might be losing billions here as a result of inefficiency, corruption and tax shortcomings.

Again, it is important for the government to get to the bottom of why Doc Gerry was murdered, just as important as jailing his killers and the masterminds behind his murder.

If we could sort out the Malampaya mess, then Doc Gerry would not have died in vain.

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