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By Jomar Canlas Reporter
CRIMINAL charges were filed on
Friday before the Office of the Ombudsman against Sen. Lito Lapid,
his son Gov. Mark Lapid of Pampanga and 22 other local officials who
were linked to an anomaly involving quarrying fees.
In his complaint, Pampanga
Vice-Governor Joseller Guiao alleged that the Lapids and the other
respondents committed fraud and violated the Code of Conduct and
Ethical Standards of Government Officials and Employees.
The other respondents included
Provincial Accountant Benjamin Yuson, Provincial Treasurer Vergel
Yabut and Provincial Administrator Fidel Arcenas.
Guiao said the respondents
conspired to defraud the government of P11,474,023 by doubling the
price of the five infrastructure projects in five barangays in
Pampanga.
Guiao said that from 1999 to
2001, the National Resources Development Council collected a total
of P382 million in quarry fees in the province. When the collection
was transferred to the capitol in the succeeding years, the amount
collected from 2002 to 2004 was short by some P45 million.
In 2004 the province collected
only P10 million which Guiao said was far from the average P120
million a year collection of the NRDC. The P38-million collections
in 2005 indicated a slight improvement, but he stressed that it was
not sufficient to justify the huge difference incurred from previous
NRDC collections.
Guiao also asked Ombudsman Maria
Merceditas Gutierrez to place the respondents under preventive
suspension to prevent them from using their position to tamper the
evidence in the case.
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