(Eagle News) — The Philippine National Police has welcomed the proposal for a Senate probe into the Special Action Force P58.9-million subsistence allowance mess.
“The PNP assures the availability of the concerned PNP officers to face any investigation,” PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. John Bulalacao said.
He said this was “actually the purpose of their relief and reassignment to the holding unit to ensure their availability and preclude them from exerting any influence on these investigations.”
It was Senator Panfilo Lacson who filed Resolution No. 712 seeking a probe into the missing funds.
According to Lacson, the “unlawful withholding of said funds, if true, constitutes a criminal or unlawful act and runs counter to the evident policy of the President to increase the pay of our military and uniformed personnel in order to repay them for their sacrifices.”
Former SAF chief Benjamin Lusad, former SAF budget and fiscal officer Senior Supt. Andre Dizon, Senior Police Officer 2 Maila Bustamante and Senior Police Officer 1 Jack James Irica of PNP-SAF Finance have been charged with plunder in connection with the unreleased Additional Subsistence Allowances during Lusad’s stint from July 2016 to January 2018, except for the months of January 2016, and January to July 2017.
According to former and present SAF members who acted as complainants, during their meetings on March 27 and April 6, Lusad and Dizon merely apologized and said that the fund had already been used for “operational expenses, fellowships and trainings.”
But based on the documents retrieved from the PNP-SAF management, a total of P58,849,590 million had been allotted for the SAF troopers’ ASA for the months of February to December 2016 and August to December 2017, the complainants said.