GORDON URGES PNP, NBI TO INTENSIFY MANHUNT VS RROW PAYMENT SCAM FINANCIER

Senator Richard J. Gordon has urged the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigations to intensify the manhunt for the alleged financier of the syndicate that has defrauded the government of P8.7-billion in Road Right of Way payments.

During Thursday's hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, Gordon, committee chairman, flashed photos of Nelson Ti and urged the law enforcement groups to exert more effort in locating him.

"I am urging the PNP and the NBI to intensify your search for Nelson Ti, who is said to be the financier of the syndicate behind the road right of way scam. He is wanted for multiple charges and several warrants of arrest have been issued against him," he said.

Gordon made the call after Ti continued to ignore the Blue Ribbon's summons to attend the hearings.

"We have sent him several invitations but he continues to ignore them. He has a lot to answer for in our investigation into the RROW payment scam," he said.

Ti had been tagged as the financier who provides funds to advance the payments to claimants and to finance the processing of their claims. He is said to be a close friend of Eldon Cruz, husband of former President Benigno Aquino III's sister, Ballsy or Maria Elena.

The modus operandi of the syndicate was to claim for just compensation of RROW which are intended for rightful owners who were affected by national highway construction at General Santos City.

The Right-of-Way Act mandates the government to provide just compensation for landowners whose properties were or will be used or affected by national infrastructure projects, such as the building of roads.

Gordon has exposed during the investigation the syndicates' modus operandi of submitting fake titles which had already cost the government P255.55-million for nine parcels of land alone in General Santos City. He presented a table which showed that the sizes of the parcels of land covered by the titles that the claimants submitted, which the Land Registration Authority certified to be authentic and genuine, were jacked up several times over. The locations of the alleged properties were also in areas other than the locations indicated in the titles.