8 fake Budget execs nabbed

Department of Budget and Management (DBM)

MANILA, Philippines: Eight individuals pretending to be officials or connected to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) were apprehended by operatives from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in an entrapment operation conducted in Mandaluyong City on March 26, 2024.

According to the initial NBI report, one of the suspects initially introduced herself as an undersecretary of the DBM to the complainant, claiming that she could assist in releasing funds for government projects.

It said that the suspect claimed that she was in charge of DBM’s special projects.

The suspects promised the complainant, who is a project contractor, access to P1.3 billion worth of government projects if they agreed to a deal.

Allegedly, this project was related to the construction of a dam, which the DBM was supposedly funding.

The suspects assured the complainant that the project would be awarded to her, but before that, they needed the complainant to provide “grease money” for the project’s “Blue Print” to initiate the processing of documents for the project award.

Fortunately, the contractor conducted an initial verification with the DBM, where she discovered that there was no official with that name in the agency, and that the mentioned project did not exist in the agency’s records.

As a result, the DBM promptly collaborated with the NBI to carry out an entrapment operation where the suspects were swiftly apprehended at a restaurant in Mandaluyong City after accepting marked money amounting to P500,000 from the NBI.

The NBI said two of the suspects expressed their desire to be witnesses against their accomplices.