The Ombudsman earlier dismissed Villanueva and nine others for the misuse of his Priority Development Assistance Fund when he was representative of CIBAC Partylist.
Senator Joel Villanueva immediately filed an appeal following the issuance of the Office of the Ombudsman of a dismissal order against him because of the anomalous disbursement of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
The misuse of his PDAF, loosely known as the pork barrel fund, was allegedly committed in June 2008, where the allocation was used to buy seedlings for the benefit of the people of some towns in Compostella Valley, but the Ombudsman found that the names of beneficiaries of the project were fictitious.
According to then minority congressman, he did not receive such amount, more so implement it to anomalous projects.
He maintained that the signatures of project beneficiaries which appeared on the documents related to the project had been forged. He added that the matter had been subjected to a probe by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Senator Villanueva said that one of the documents even used a letterhead of the Buhay partylist when he was representing the CIBAC Partylist.
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