Former SAF budget officer admits holding on to P37M in allowances to ‘secure’ the money

A FORMER budget officer of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (PNP SAF) on Tuesday admitted that he kept the P37 million unreleased allowances of SAF men even after he was relieved from duty.
“It was in my custody, Sir, after we were relieved from SAF,” Senior Superintendent Andre P. Dizon said during the Senate investigation on the withholding of daily additional subsistence allowance (ASA) of the PNP SAF.
Mr. Dizon has returned the P37 million, supposedly coming from the undisbursed allowances in 2016 and 2017, to the SAF in two tranches last April, about three months after he was relieved.
It has since been distributed to the PNP SAF troopers.
Mr. Dizon and several other high-ranking PNP officials, including former police chief Benjamin B. Lusad, are facing plunder and malversation charges before the Office of the Ombudsman after a group of SAF officers filed a complaint over the unreleased ASA.
Mr. Dizon said he kept the money because he was accountable for it while his position remained vacant after being sacked.
“During the time that we were relieved, my replacement has not yet arrived to SAF. I am accountable for the money, Sir, I better secure it,” he said.
Senator Panfilo M. Lacson, chair of the committee on public order and dangerous drugs, was not convinced, though, of Mr. Dizon’s justification.
“What really is the source of the P37 million? Because keeping that amount for that long period, you know, raises a big question mark. Where did it come from? Is it in your vault? You said you were already relieved,” Mr. Lacson said.
Former PNP chief Ronald M. Dela Rosa, in an interview with reporters, also said that Mr. Dizon should have immediately released the allowances or transferred it to his replacement.
“That is the problem. Why did he keep it? Why was the money in his custody when he was supposed to pass it on to the next comptroller,” Mr. Dela Rosa said.
Mr. Lacson, also a retired police director general, said he believes that the former budget officer had no honest intention to return the money, but was compelled to do so given the threat of legal charges.
“If there was no threat… would they even think of returning or distributing? Perhaps not… And it looked like it was forced on them to return the funds,” the senator told reporters. — Camille A. Aguinaldo