Anti-corruption advocate slain in Mountain Province

PNP probe task force formed 

By Gina Dizon

BAUKO, Mountain Province – Police created a special task force to probe the killing of a staunch anti-crime and corruption advocate killed here Wednesday at Barangay Balintaugan.

Salvador G. Liked, 44, single and resident of   Sitio Gutang was shot five times causing his death late evening of Sept. 2.

Bauko police chief Lt. Nestor Malinias said the body of Liked found in front of his residence bore gunshot wounds in the face, nape, back, chest and abdomen.

Police investigation revealed there were three gunshots heard when the crime happened.

Three shells of Cal.45 and one slug was found in the vicinity of the crime.

Malinias said a bullet was lodged inside Liked’s body which may have caused his death.

A bullet entered his nape and exited in his face.

Two gunmen were seen by two witnesses but they were reportedly not identified as they were in bonnets, he added.

Based on initial investigation, Liked was about to go to check his house under construction near their old dwelling around 8:55 p.m. when the incident happened.   

Malinias did not disclosed motive of the killing but said the investigation will unearth the truth.

Liked is an anti-corruption advocate having filed a number of corruption cases against government officials and employees of Mountain Province and other places in the Cordillera before the office of the Ombudsman, Commission on Audit and the Office of the Sandigan Bayan.

He is the secretary general of Citizens Crime Watch against Corruption- Mountain Province Chapter.  

He is also a barangay kagawad of Balintaugan and an active church leader of St. Martin Church of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Philippines (EDNP) actively helping in the construction of the ongoing church building.  

As a barangay leader, he was instrumental in the sending of a request to national government for construction of a proposed P20 million Balintaugan multipurpose barangay hall.

Early this year, the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Finance and Administration from the office of the President sent a letter to Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año asking the latter’s action on the request of the barangay council of Balintaugan for the construction of said multipurpose hall.   

Liked ran as a Vice-Mayor of Bauko but landed third in the race.

He continued however with his anti-corruption advocacy while serving as a kagawad of Balintaugan.

Liked and fellow anti-crime advocate Juniper Dominguez recently forwarded a petition for investigation and special audit to the Dept. of Interior and Local Government and Senate health committee chairman Sen. Christopher ‘Bong’ Go among other national officials including President Duterte on alleged “double funding,” of similar items budgeted this 2020 fiscal year and P35.4 million Bayanihan Grant to the provincial government to address Covid-19.

Dominguez alleged there was a “sinister plot” to pass on medical equipment, materials and medicine from the ARO of FY 2020 and charge it to the P35.4 million Bayanihan Grant or vice versa. 

The P35.4 million Bayanihan Grant under the Sangguniang Panlalawigan’s Appropriation Ordinance 2020-04 contained same items in Appropriation Release Order (ARO) for maintenance and other operating expenses for fiscal year 2020 totaling P41.74 million.

Appropriation Ordinance No. 2020-04 dated April 16, 2020 authorized Supplemental Budget No 2 series of 2020 of the provincial government of Mountain Province involving a total appropriation of P35,393,993 which is the Bayanihan Grant to provinces.

Said ordinance identified  training expenses  at P300,000; laundry at P300,000; janitorial expense at P300,000; and other MOOE  on maintenance  of established  provincial checkpoints  at P5 million, food supply at P1 million, drugs and medicine  at P5 million, medical supplies at P8 million, lab supply expenses  at P3 million, X-ray and ultrasound at P800,000,  fuel oil and lubricants at  P300,00; and maintenance of buildings  and other hospital facilities at P2 million and capital outlay on various hospital equipment at P9,393,993.

Dominguez said the ARO of FY 2020 possibly disbursed January to March 2020 identified same items with differing amounts – trainings at P444,000; food supplies at P3.2 million; medical and surgical supplies at P5 million; laboratory at P8.7 million; X-ray and ultrasound at P1.55 million; fuel oil and lubricants at P1.1 million and repair and maintenance of building at P424, 752 totaling to P41.74 million.

Dominguez in his petition asked where the training, janitorial, and laundry expenses, bio-refrigerator, podia, nebulizers, biosafety cabinet and cardiac monitor with defibrillator be used when Bauko-based Luis Hora Memorial Regional Hospital is the certified hospital to treat Covid patients in Mountain Province.

Dominguez in a separate letter to Go asked how the P2 million repair and maintenance of buildings and other hospital facilities of Bontoc General Hospital identified in AO 2020-04 to address Covid virus when BoGH is “not authorized” to treat suspected or infected Covid 19 patients.

In a separate petition, petitioner Liked asked the DILG what savings are there to draw from as cited in AO 2020-04 when the fiscal year is not yet over.

Said Appropriation Ordinance 2020-04 hinged on section 366 of the Local Government code on use of appropriated funds and savings where “funds shall be available exclusively for the specific purpose for which they have been appropriated.

No ordinance shall be passed authorizing any transfer of appropriations from one item to another.