TURNING POINT: The Money Trail

NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews / 23 November) – The issue broadens and deepens. It’s not just how P125 million was spent in 11 days on behalf of beneficiaries, the like of Mary Grace Piattos, but how four tranches of P125 million – such a huge amount of cash, was withdrawn from the bank, moved to and kept in the Office of the Vice President (OVP). The imagery titillates.

Why would such a huge amount be withdrawn in the first place? For expediency and convenience, the amount could have been broken into smaller amounts, say, P25 million or less.

Why the rush to withdraw huge amounts?

Why would voluminous cash be stored in the OVP, if at all? The office has no vault or other system for safekeeping for that matter. Was the delivery of the cash to that office or somewhere else?

What was the instruction of the VP?

The bogus receipts indicate that the money was not spent at all but is kept somewhere.

Greed is insatiable.

Who eventually treasured the P612.5 million OVP and Department of Education confidential funds?

Your guess is as good as mine.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. William R. Adan, Ph.D., is retired professor and former chancellor of Mindanao State University at Naawan, Misamis Oriental.)