Godofredo who?

The name Godofredo Roque may not ring a bell as loud as that sounded by Janet Napoles, but if the Commission on Audit is to be believed, Roque’s own network of bogus nongovernment organizations may have siphoned off more pork barrel funds, and dealt with more government personnel, than Napoles’ group did. In a 2013 special audit, the COA revealed that this pork barrel scam was much bigger than the P10-billion racket that Napoles allegedly ran from 2004 to 2012. Specifically, then COA Chair Grace Pulido-Tan mentioned that, from 2007 to 2009, a far larger number of fake NGOs outside of the Napoles network were able to corner a much bigger chunk of pork barrel allocations to legislators.

Within those two years, the budget department released some P12 billion in pork barrel funds, of which about P2.157 billion ended up in 10 NGOs identified with Napoles. Nine other foundations were deemed dubious because they shared common addresses, common suppliers of equipment, or common sets of officers. The COA finding was that at least eight of these foundations were controlled by a group led by Roque, and that the group received, from 2007 to 2009 alone, close to P1 billion in pork barrel funds from 47 lawmakers.

The NGOs most frequently linked to Roque in the reports include the Kabuhayan at Kalusugan Alay sa Masa Foundation Inc., which allegedly received P526.679 million from 2007 to 2009, and the Gabay Para sa Masa Foundation, which, according to Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice, received P15 million from Makati Rep. Abigail Binay’s 2009 pork barrel, allegedly for a vermiculture livelihood project in her highly urbanized district, as well as P7 million worth of projects for the province of Catanduanes from two party-list groups as late as 2012.

The other foundations read like a roster of bad titles for a public-affairs show in a third-rate TV network: Kabuhayan at Kalusugan Alay sa Masa Foundation Inc. (which received P526 million), Pangkabuhayan Foundation Inc. (P396 million), Kagandahan ng Kapaligiran Foundation Inc. (P109 million), Kapuso’t Kapamilya Foundation Inc. (P107 million), Kaagapay Magpakailanman Foundation Inc. (P90 million), and Buhay Mo Mahal Ko Foundation Inc. (P83 million).

In at least two of these foundations—Kaagapay Magpakailanman and Gabay Para sa Masa—the set of officers is the same, and among them is Roque. According to official records, Kaagapay was incorporated only in 2006; the COA was unable to find the company in the three addresses it provided.

“For someone whose foundations received millions of funds for the implementation of government projects, Godofredo Roque is hard to locate,” reported GMA News in 2013. “His six foundations have offices in Manila, Quezon City, Pasig and Valenzuela; these offices are themselves hard to find, are nonexistent, or are staffed by people who could not provide details on where Roque could be located. When GMA News Research and GMA Special Assignments Team finally located Roque, in Pampanga—one of his two addresses listed in corporate documents submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission—he refused to be interviewed, saying only that he has nothing to explain.”

Much ink and newsprint have been devoted to the syndicate operated by Napoles, but Roque, who appears to have run an enterprise that was bigger and more influential, seems to have enjoyed a free pass all this time. He has not appeared in any court of law, been summoned to a hearing in Congress, or given any public interview. Napoles is now in jail—not for the principal plunder charge, but for the case of serious illegal detention lodged against her by her erstwhile employee and confidante, Benhur Luy—but Roque has remained elusive. Despite the vast sums of taxpayer money that, on paper at least, appear to have passed through dubious foundations that bear his name, he has not received the kind of keen attention, scrutiny and opprobrium that was heaped on Napoles.

Last Thursday, the Office of the Ombudsman indicted two more lawmakers—Malabon Rep. Alvin Sandoval and former Bukidnon Rep. Candido Pancrudo Jr.—on graft and malversation charges for their alleged participation in the pork barrel racket. But, for a change, the cases do not involve the Napoles network.

The Ombudsman’s move to begin prosecuting cases involving NGOs outside the Napoles ring should finally shine a light on the rival shadowy operation said to have been foisted on the nation by Roque et al. How has the man gotten away with it all this time? The plunder of the pork barrel remains one big unfinished business, and public attention cannot yet flag at this point.