Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro “Teddy” Casiño called for an audit of the P197 million election funds that the Armed Forces failed to fully account for and liquidate in 2004.

Casino urged the Commission on Audit to conduct a special audit of the funds channeled to the AFP allegedly by the Commission on Elections through the joint Comelec-AFP Task Force HOPE (Honest, Orderly, Peaceful Elections).

“First, we have to know why and how Comelec gave the P197 million to the AFP to spend in the 2004 elections and where the funds came from. We understand that so much money was changing hands at this time from several sources,” Casiño said.

“Second, the disbursements appear questionable. The fact that bulk of the funds - P101 million– went to an alleged ‘intelligence project’, as mentioned by Lt. Col. Gilbert Gapay, budget officer of J3 directly under Gen. (Hermogenes) Esperon, already raises a red flag. The AFP, particularly the generals and their budget officers, have yet to submit a detailed liquidation of their expenses during and after the elections,” he said.

“We certainly hope that they can account for the money because based on different testimonies in the annexes in the Mayuga report, there was no liquidation. That by itself should have warranted a case against the officers involved but the Mayuga panel ignored this important detail,” the lawmaker added.

He alleged that Esperon, then the Deputy Commander of Task Force Hope and concurrently the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, told the commission that liquidation was not finished since Task Force Hope ceased to exist on May 25, 2004.

Casiño said that when Lt. Col. Robert Arevalo was interviewed, he said he does not know who prepares the budget of the Task Groups or where the funds go. He said the Comelec, not the AFP, is answerable for the funds.

“Mukhang nagpapasahan sila ng accounting. Again, this was ignored by the Mayuga Commission even as it appeared obvious that there was really no accounting,” the solon said.

He cited the testimony of Lt. Col. Alexander Balutan, Marine-Battalion Commander of MBLT 7, who said that he received from the Brigade around P50,000 to P60,000 for subsistence allowance.

The lawmaker said Lt. Col. Victoriano Pimentel, Battalion Commander MBLT 4, also received P90,000 to P100,000 from Task Force Comet but no expenditure report was required. An additional P70,000 was given and again no liquidation was asked.

Another officer, Lt. Col. Elmer Estopin, Batallion Commander of MBLT 10, received P75,000 from Gen. (Gabriel) Habacon and no liquidation was required.

“Is this the common practice of the AFP? No wonder that so many funds have been stolen or misused in the AFP. We suspect that the intelligence and operational funds for Task Force Hope was used for fraud. Thus, it is really imperative that the House probe on the Mayuga report to be started immediately and the COA conduct a special audit on the election funds handled by Gen. Esperon in 2004,” Casiño said.