Under a microscope: The charge vs Jamora
The black propaganda being spread by the Mabilog camp focuses on two issues, a dismissal order issued by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) and a complaint for plunder and malversation filed with the Department of Justice. Let us examine the charges under the microscope of truth and fairplay.
On September 2007, the Presidential Anti Graft Commission under the Office of the President issued a resolution recommending the dismissal of Undersecretary Lorenzo Jamora for alleged irregularities relative to the construction of the LWUA Training Center.
The case against Jamora was filed with the PAGC after Jamora has already left LWUA and was already serving as Administrator of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System. The charge was fabricated by a cabal operating in Malacañang to get juicy government contracts. They wanted to remove Jamora out of the way so they can corner contracts at MWSS. Although the PAGC recommendation was submitted to the Office of the President, it was not enforced. It did not even have a date of effectivity. Jamora filed a motion for reconsideration but it was not also acted upon by the PAGC. Jamora remained with the MWSS.
The PAGC recommendation was rendered moot when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appointed Jamora to the post of Presidential Assistant for Water, with the rank of Undersecretary, Office of the President. The appointment, bearing the Presidential Seal with the security code bearing PGMA Hologram No. 44067, was dated April 16, 2008 and was signed by President Arroyo herself. Jamora remained as Undersecretary until he resigned only last March 10, 2010 in compliance with the Supreme Court ruling on government officials running for office.
The second issue arose in mid-2008, a dismissed employee filed a complaint for malversation and plunder against then MWSS Administrator Larry Jamora. Here, we need not use a microscope but the discerning eyes of a disinterested observer, Horacio “Ducky” Paredes, former Malacañang Press Secretary during the term of President Corazon Aquino.
Paredes, in his column in Malaya in August 2008, wrote:
“Looking at the charges, they are flimsy at best. First, Jamora is accused of “plunder” because of allegedly misappropriating (without prior authorization) P791 million in MWSS funds.
Jamora purposely placed these funds in the Land Bank of the Philippines under trust with the MWSS (not any individual) as the sole trustee and beneficiary, which were then used to invest in high-yielding government securities. Jamora did this legally – with the Board’s approval. The money is safe, secure, fully accounted for, and held in Trust in the company’s name. Where is the impropriety in this?
Jamora is also accused of unliquidated advances amounting to P50 million. A quick look at the 2007 COA exit report shows that none of the auditors mentioned any unliquidated advances. How can the COA miss an amount of P50 million?
Perhaps the venue where the complaints were filed is more revealing than the charges themselves. Logically, these charges ought to have been brought before either the Office of the Ombudsman or to the Commission on Audit (not the Department of Justice), considering that the issues concern an alleged misappropriation of funds from a grant to the water agency.
Paredes implied in his column that the charges were politically motivated. He further wrote:
But, Raul is not about to exit the political scene when GMA leaves in 2010. He has, on several occasions, indicated his determination to present himself as a candidate for Mayor of Iloilo city which is presently represented in Congress by his son Raul Jr. .
With his eyes fixed on the mayoralty, he’s now taking shots at his former protégé, former MWSS Administrator Lorenzo Jamora, whom he sees as his rival for the mayoralty of Iloilo City.
The irony of it all is that it is not Gonzalez Sr, who is privy to the complaint, that is spreading the lie against Jamora but Mabilog’s desperate camp. Gonzalez left the Justice Department without even acting on the complaint knowing that it will not hold water. Gonzalez refuses to touch this black propaganda with a ten-foot pole. Instead, Gonzalez is still looking for a microscope that disappeared in UPV and remains unaccounted for twenty years later.
