Senator Roxas said he is disappointed with Verzosa for not saying who authorized and signed for the cash advance that dela Paz withdraw, Verzosa said

Miami
October 23, 2008
Story: Senator Roxas said he is disappointed with Verzosa for not saying who authorized and signed for the cash advance that dela Paz withdraw, Verzosa said dela Paz did it on his own

A senator expressed his disappointment to the new head of the Philippine National Police after it said that he did not know how the Php 6.9 million was withdrawn.

“I am disappointed with Police Director General (Jesus) Verzosa for not saying who authorized and who signed the money for its release,” Senator Mar Roxas said, Vice Chair of Committee on Foreign Relations.

Verzosa was repeatedly asked by the members of the committee who attended the hearing, Majority Floor Leader Francis Pangilinan, Committee on Foreign Relations ChairSenator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Minority Floor Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Sen. Miguel Zubiri and Roxas on where does the money came from.

Asked for the procedure on the cash advances, Verzosa said that the authorization should came from him as the Chief of PNP but he said that he only learned about the cash advance made by Dela Paz from Senior Superintendent Tomas Rentoy, budget division chief of directorate for comptrollership of the PNP. “It was relayed to me by Sr. Supt. Rentoy, also assigned at the comptroller division. I did not make any approval. The transaction was made between them,” he told the committee.

Roxas said how come that the transaction was made by the two and it did not pass through the office of Verzosa who is the Chief of the PNP.

The committee also cited that under the General Appropriation Act of 2008, that no officials should attend any assembly or conferences when they are due to retire within one year after the assembly that they attended to. The committee said that this indeed was violated by the PNP.

Santiago also questioned Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ronaldo Puno for violating the Administrative Order 103 or not allowing any foreign travel if it will cost the government. But Puno said he is authorized to approve their travel because it will benefit the organization.

Department of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales who is also present at the hearing as resource panel, said that the travel is necessary because it is an International Police Assembly.


Also present at the senate hearing are the seven PNP delegates, they are P 6.9 millionNP deputy chief for administration Deputy Dir. Gen. Emmanuel Carta, deputy chief for operations Deputy Dir. Gen. Ismael Rafanan, Police Regional Office 9 director Dir. Jaime Caringal, director for operations Dir. Silverio Alarcio, director for human resource and development Dir. German Doria, director for plans Dir. Romeo Ricardo, and his budget and fiscal section chief Supt. Elmer Pellobello.

They were asked if they know about the cash advance, Ricardo said they know that they have the funds but did not know how much it is.

Even Puno is saying that he do not know about the Php 6.9 million cash advance that was done by dela Paz. He said that he only learned about the money when the incident on Moscow happened.

During the ambush interview, Roxas said that it seems that the PNP is covering up something that is why it is not clear where did they got the money and how.

Meanwhile, Verzosa said that the PNP is also investigating the matter and the result will be out on next Monday, October 27 and insist that there is no whitewash on their own probe.