Documents in the missing P380M – 5

By: Modesto P. Sa-onoy

YESTERDAY, I wrote that the requests for millions of funds by the Manila Purchasing Office began the month after the death of Ricardo B. Yanson, the founder of this privately owned largest public transportation company in the Philippines, if not in Asia. The company president was Leo Rey and he had, he admitted, control and supervision of the MPO. We asked whether the millions-worth of requests were approved by him or at least he was aware of them.

I cited only the first three months after the death of the patriarch but the requests for millions each month continued with another peak of about P45 million in October 2017.

Note that the requests were made to the VTI main office and therefore that office was aware of them. The question we will deal with later is: who in Bacolod knew?

We also learned from the documents that the original supporting papers for these requests were not transmitted to Bacolod. Were these lapses questioned?

I had repeatedly said that Leo Rey has the responsibility of explaining the loss of the money because he is president of the corporation and that office carries with it the burden of explaining what happened. But he persistently refused and played the game of “blame somebody” that politicians utilize when they wanted “to distance” themselves from a fiasco.

Earlier I also mentioned that for three months after the death of their father, MPO requested about P85 million for funding. This withdrawal of funds is puzzling. What significant event was there, three months after the death of Ricardo B. Yanson, to merit such a huge expenditure? If it was a legitimate expense, why were the original documents kept out from Bacolod?

A system is instituted precisely to raise alarm bells so that corrective measures can be taken. When a request was approved, the money was transferred to the MPO account to replenish its revolving fund. The movement of huge sums does not look like a replenishment but a fund transfer. Was MPO ever asked to show cause for the non-submission of the original supporting documents?

In the July 13-14, headline story of Daily Guardian, Leo Rey was quoted saying that “the alleged unauthorized withdrawals… that were charged to his personal accounts, were regular.”

Were the initial P85 million withdrawn from November and December 2015 and January 2016 alone, “charged to his accounts”? If they were, then they must have been reported and recorded and therefore “regular.” But the documents say the transactions did not comply with the system and thus the money “got lost”. So, how can this money transfer be “regular”?

Why can’t Leo Rey explain or point to where it went if these were proper, regular and authorized withdrawals and charged to his personal account? There is no crime in that. Unless his defense is fragile. So, until he explains this to the satisfaction of his siblings and the public, the question will hang over his head.

Maybe he justified this to his siblings, but they still decided to change him. That says a lot and things would have gone well until the matriarch intervened and created havoc.

Well then, where did the over P339 million without supporting papers that violated the process go? Let’s try to find a plausible explanation.

Here are very interesting entries in a document. It says from November 2015, a month after Ricardo B. Yanson’s demise, until May 2018, the total transactions with a request for funding had reached P339,583,976.41. The supporting papers of the transaction had not been submitted to Bacolod as of May 2018. Maybe they are still en route or submitted by now.

Let’s look at the amount that we had already mentioned. Leo Rey’s P8.5 million used for the welfare of the employees and the P27 million for which Rowena Sarona was charged are accounted for. What is unaccounted is the P339,583,976.41 without supporting papers. The last amount already includes the P85 million that was cited earlier.

Close to the missing P380 million? Note, however, that these amounts do not include other expenses less than P50,000. Have we already hit the missing P380 million? Well, we are about P45M short. Will other documents tell?

So, let’s go further into the documents on Monday without touching on the P50,000 RFs because they are, well, peanuts. Let’s deal with durian.