According to the Department of Budget and Management, the transfer of P1.1 billion to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority by the Department of Information and Communications Technology for the application of a national broadband project during the Duterte administration was unauthorized (DBM).

Throughout a congressional hearing on Tuesday, DBM Acting Director Perpetual Judea Quiazon informed lawmakers that “there is no authority for the transfer issued by the DBM” based on their records.

According to Quiazon, this is a breach of the 2022 General Appropriations Act.

During the hearing, it was also revealed that then-DICT Secretary Manny Caintic pushed through the transfer despite a legal opinion from the agency’s legal staff opposing it.

Northern Samar Representative Paul Daza asked Caintic about why the agency defied the legal judgment of the DICT’s Office of Assistant Secretary to Legal Affairs (OASLA), which declared that the deal was ultra vires, or an act beyond what the law allowed.

Caintic responded, “I was given legal advice na ‘yung MMDA has the capability to do it. Ang aking hinihingi hindi ICT aspect, ang paghuhukay, the civil works. The civil works is gonna be a tremendous project management challenge sa Maynila. Kaya ‘yun ng MMDA.”

(I wasn’t asking about ICT, but about civil works, which the MMDA can handle.)

Daza urged his colleagues to take action against what he considered an unlawful project, which he had previously identified as having anomalies. According to Daza, the latest disclosures should put an end to the initiative.

“The download was illegal and against the legal opinion of their own lawyer in DICT…I urge my colleagues to do something about this and not to allow usurpation or wastage of this P1.1 billion,” he added.

“If the former chair is already saying that you have to return that money, that only means he already sought legal opinion before saying so. It is not a matter of the awarded contract being still under post qualification process,” said Robes, head of the House good government and accountability group.