Some P2.7 billion in public funds seem to be at the bottom of the murder case of radio commentator Gerry Ortega in the Land of Promise—Palawan.
That is, well, if you believe the groups—powerful political and big business groups—behind the media campaign to pin the Ortega murder on former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes as the mastermind.
They said the murder of the block-time radioman had something to do with his commentaries on the P2.7-billion so-called Malampaya funds, claiming that the Commission on Audit simply refused to do a thorough and official audit.
The ensuing media campaign against Reyes, right after the Ortega murder, naturally hammered on the fact that Reyes was the provincial governor upon the release of the P2.7-billion funds by the national government.
Of course the money was part of the national government’s income from the Malampaya natural gas project that was undertaken by a consortium led by the Dutch oil group Shell.
For years under Reyes as governor, the Palawan provincial government fought with the national government for the release of the province’s share in the “royalty” from the Malampaya gas project. Now it was actually big money, something like 40 percent of the total national government income, which by this time already amounts to more than P180 billion in all.
The Malampaya gas field started operations in 2001, but the provincial government of Palawan only got its share in the “royalty” six years later in 2007. In between was the long-running tussle between the Department of Finance and the Palawan local government, which finally ended in 2007 when the national and the provincial governments signed an agreement.
It basically said that Palawan’s share in the Malampaya funds, amounting to about P2.7 billion, should be divided among the provincial government and the two congressional districts.
The sharing went this way: P960 million to the provincial government, P820 million to the first congressional district of Palawan and another P900 million to the second district.
Now, as a special mention in the agreement, the city government of Puerto Princesa, headed by Mayor Edward Hagedorn, which is part of the second district, would get P270 million out of the second district’s share. At that time the Palawan provincial government had a list of projects that was based on the investment priority program of the national government.
According to Reyes, the P960-million share of the provincial, plus the P820 million share of the second district, went to solar power projects, hospitals and lying-in clinics, health insurance, school construction, day-care centers, scholarship programs, and infrastructure.
Lately the Reyes camp was saying that all those projects were implemented with the supervision of national agencies such as the Department of Energy, the Department of Budget and Management, and the Department of Finance.
Now something in the Malampaya fund issue, in connection with the murder of radioman Ortega, seems to bother our contacts in the Palawan business community. The city government of Puerto Princesa actually got P270 million from the Malampaya funds in 2007. Nobody can as yet say where the money went, what projects benefited from it, for example.
In the first district, at least Rep. Antonio Alvarez, the younger brother of the defeated Palawan gubernatorial candidate Jose “Pepito” Alvarez, has something to show for the P900 million share of his district. And that is, well, an unfinished airport project in San Vicente town, which cost some P300 million, now still struggling to be completed.
Apparently, the murdered radioman Ortega was highly critical of how the province’s share in the Malampaya funds was used. Bear in mind that the funds were divided three ways, or four ways, if you include the P270-million share of the Puerto Princesa city government.
All of a sudden, right after the murder of Ortega, a media campaign exploded against Reyes as the principal figure behind the misuse of the Malampaya funds, as being exposed by Ortega before his murder, since Reyes was the governor at the time of the release of the funds. Nobody said anything about the four-way split done by the national government for the P2.7-billion share of Palawan.
As I said, the Malampaya fund issue was one of the main “motives” thrown at Reyes for planning the murder of Ortega, at least based on the media campaign against him. Recently, as we all know, the Department of Justice cleared Reyes in the Ortega murder case, but the media campaign did not stop. The powerful groups behind the media campaign against Reyes were quick to churn out reports, basically accusing the DoJ of “whitewash.”
Really, with the feisty, incorruptible Secretary Leila de Lima as head of the DoJ, is that possible at all?
Anyway, it is as if, to those powerful groups behind the media campaign, only Reyes was capable of planning and ordering the murder. Nobody else in the entire province of Palawan could have done it, not in a million lifetimes. How plausible is such a premise, anyway?