MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) Two of the eight police generals who went to Russia early this month for a conference have returned all or part of the money that each was given for the trip and the others were expected to do the same in the coming days, a spokesman for the Philippine National Police said.
In a press conference Thursday, Chief Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome, said that Director for Operations Silverio Alarcio Jr. has returned all of the P274,070 early this Thursday to the Department of Finance.
Director German Doria of the PNP Human Resource and Doctrine Development also announced that he has returned P100,000 of the P274,070 on the same day and submitted a promissory note that he would return the rest of the money “within 30 days.”
Bartolome said he also received word that retired comptroller Eliseo dela Paz would be returning the money Friday while the rest would do the same next week.
The return of the PNP travel funds that were used during the 77th Interpol Assembly in St. Petersburg, Russia was in compliance with the directive of PNP Director General Jesus Verzosa last October 27, “ordering the seven active service PNP officers concerned to return the entire cash advance for travel they received from the Finance Service.”
Verzosa also asked Dela Paz “to do the same considering that the procedure involved in the release of this amount is questionable.”
But he added that “should anyone of them feel they are entitled to reimbursement of expenses, they may file the corresponding claims following the normal accounting and auditing procedures.”
Based on initial investigation conducted by the PNP, Dela Paz has been accused of allegedly releasing without authority from Verzosa P6.9 million from the PNP intelligence fund.
In a press conference earlier Thursday, Doria admitted that he was unaware of Administrative Order 103 that suspended all foreign travel as part of the government’s “austerity measures” and apologized.
Section 1 of the order states that all foreign trips are suspended with the exception of “ministerial meetings” and “scholarships or trainings.”
The Senate committee on foreign relations, under Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, has said that the eight PNP officers violated the law by going to the Interpol conference using the PNP budget.
“I would like to admit that we were unaware of the prohibition of the law and we are sorry for that. As I’ve said, we travelled in good faith,” Doria said.
But Doria said that he was not expecting the filing of any administrative charges against him.
“Not really because I have thought from the start that our travel is legal or lawful. Because we received the orders from no less than the chairman of Napolcom[National Police Commission] [Ronaldo Puno] for us to travel and basically we were ordered to attend the 77th Interpol Assembly so I don’t expect [any administrative charges],” said Doria.
“What I’m expecting as an officer is in violation of the GAA (General Appropriations Act), my travel expense will be disallowed and that’s why we are anticipating that it will be disallowed and I am now paying partially the cash advance that have been given to me,” Doria said.
He said it would be up to the PNP auditing section to determine if the more than P270,000 could still be reimbursed. But Doria also expressed hope that the money would be reimbursed.
“Kung hindi po, eh okay lang din sa amin [If not, it’s also okay with us]. Ang hinihingi namin, sana ma-consider ito [What we are requesting is that this be considered] as [an official travel]. But as I’ve said, we leave it to the discretion of the auditor of the PNP on whether our travel expenses in Russia will be reimbursed by them. We are hoping and praying that the money will be reimbursed to us because it is a big amount of money,” Doria said.
