'Euro general' Dela Paz admits abuse of discretion

MANILA, Philippines — Former National Police comptroller Eliseo dela Paz admitted that there was an abuse of discretion on his part when he dismissed the warning given by his subordinates on the irregularity of the release of P10 million fund. The amount was supposed to be for use by the PNP delegation to the Interpol conference in St. Petersburg, Russia early last month. "I would think so," was dela Paz's reply to the question of Senator Gregorio Honasan if he believed he abused his discretion, knowing that "no one is looking over your shoulder". Dela Paz said there was "lapse and even deliberate because of the situation" as he had been notified of the possible problem with the release of the fund but he ignored it. During the hearing, other PNP officials said they expressed concern when dela Paz told them that he was taking P10 million from the PNP intelligence fund for use by the delegation. Superintendent Samuel Rodriguez, disbursing officer for directorate for intelligence, said that because of the irregularity of the request, he informed his immediate officer, finance services chief Chief Superintendent Orlando Pestaño. “I made a notification addressed to my immediate officer police superintendent Pestaño that there will be a violation of some auditing roles so I made it a point to notify him through memo and I submitted it to him and then I also made a memo and I submitted to police superintendent Rentoy informing police director dela Paz that there is a violation with regard to the release of cash to be sourced from the intelligence and confidential funds," said Rodriguez. Rodriguez, however, said Pestaño told him to wait for the “clearance or approval" of dela Paz. Pestaño said he assumed the transaction was “regular" as dela Paz assured him that he would talk to the directorate for intelligence about the funds. “The moment that Director dela Paz told me that ‘ako na lang bahala diyan, ako na mage-explain sa DI dyan,’ directorate for intelligence, so I presumed na walang irregularities," said Pestaño. Dela Paz admitted that he was both the requesting and approving party, saying “there is a need for such fund." “I take the full responsibility on this. No scapegoat dito. Yun po ang katotohanan," said dela Paz upon the interpellation of Sen. Rodolfo Biazon. Dela Paz said out of the P10 million, more than P2 million was used for travel and hotel accommodations, among others. The police officials made the statements during the joint hearing of the Senate Foreign Affairs and Blue Ribbon committees. Dela Paz was held along with his wife Maria Fe at the Moscow International Airport last month after they were found carrying 105,000 euros without declaring the same when they entered the country. Dela Paz said he was not able to declare the amount he brought with him because of failure to communicate well with Russian officials who does not speak English. "When we arrived we just asked for the connecting flight. We had a hard time communicating with people because of language barrier," dela Paz said. He said they were just told by those in the airport to go out of the building, then find a bus that will bring them to a domestic airport for their connecting flight. He said they were only given a departure card. He said the same problem with language emerged when they were apprehended by Russian customs officials. "When they got hold of the money we had a hard time because they do not speak English. We were brought to their office and they called for an interpreter from the airline to talk with us," Dela Paz said. - GMANews.TV