EVARDONE SAYS he has been trying to keep a low profile following the flak he garnered with his admission that he was involved in the October 11 controversy. Actually, despite his supposedly strong Palace connections, he has succeeded in flying below the radar of most of the major news organizations. Even when he was the media director of the ruling coalition’s Team Unity in the last elections, Evardone was barely mentioned in most news reports.

For the most part, it seems that this has been to the governor’s advantage. For example, few outside of the province — and perhaps even within — know that the COA had questioned how his province in 2005 spent a total of P30.7 million for its aid and subsidy program. The money apparently came from lump sum appropriations from the office of the governor, vice governor, and members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan. While the fund had the noble goal of supporting the province’s Annual Investment Plan, the disbursement procedures gave it a semblance of a slush fund. It was mostly handed out in cash, COA said, while some were in kind, such as construction materials, jetmatic pumps, medals and trophies, and cell phones.

COA noted that the fund had been disbursed without safeguards. Among the irregularities it discovered were the diversion of P97,000 to the personal bank account of the barangay captain of Dolores and the issuance of official receipts ahead of the release or issuance of some checks.

COA also discovered that in 2005, the capitol had used the aid and subsidy program to transfer more than P2 million to Philippine National Police (PNP) Provincial Director Pio Laher Manito, allegedly to implement the province’s peace and order program. But there was no memorandum of agreement for the money, “and the disbursements had no other supporting documents except for some official receipts” issued by Manito, wrote the state auditors. Interestingly, among those who withdrew money from the aid and subsidy program was SPO2 Derilo, who received P385,000.

Eventually, though, Evardone’s peace and order initiative did not prosper, in part because he failed to first establish how he intended to implement the program — even as the capitol kept on recording disbursements for it. These included a total of P900,000 that COA said the capitol spent from January to December 2005 for a media consultancy contract with “a certain Diego Cagahastian, et al.” for the initiative.

It was only in August 2006 that the governor announced he was setting aside another P100,000 for the use of a technical working group to formulate guidelines for the peace process.

The National Democratic Front (NDF)-Eastern Visayas has twitted Evardone’s peace and order efforts as “a cheap publicity gimmick” and mere “politicking.” In its website, NDF Eastern Visayas spokesman Fr. Santiago Salas pointed out that the peace process was already being carried out at the national level. Salas added that Evardone was “hypocritical in talking of peace while holding hands with the military” and “for not holding the military to account for killings and violent attacks committed on militant activists and civilians in Eastern Samar and the region.”

IN THE meantime, even some non-Estehanons have become aware of the sorry state of several of Eastern Samar’s major roads. This is despite the capitol having set aside P4 million from its Economic Development Fund precisely for their repair and maintenance. Indeed, the provincial board had even enacted two supplemental budgets for an additional P500,000 for the roads.

Yet whatever seriousness of purpose there was for the endeavor seems to have been lost in the implementation. Seventy-two percent of the fund or P3.26 million was spent for wages of casual workers; only 16 percent or P720,000 went to filling materials like sand and gravel. Of the remainder, P464,826 was spent for diesel, oil, and gasoline, while P48,500 was given as financial assistance to a barangay.

The provincial engineer told COA that the office of the governor had hired the casuals. Pressing further, the auditors discovered that the workers’ time records were signed not by the foremen of the engineer’s office, but by some officials in the office of the governor and by other provincial department heads only when COA came calling. “It was evident that the repairs and maintenance funds were intended to sustain the hiring of casuals,” said the auditors.

COA also found that the provincial engineer no longer prepared programs of work (POW) for projects covering the maintenance of roads and bridges. The job — and the fund that came with it — had been placed under the governor’s control. COA warned that the absence of POWs “resulted in poorly maintained provincial roads and bridges and in difficulty and inconvenience in public transport.”

Evardone told the PCIJ that he had no knowledge that most of the P4.5 million set aside for the repair of roads and bridges went to paying casual workers. But the PCIJ could not elicit more responses on him afterward regarding the COA report for 2005.

Tordesillas describes Evardone as the type of person who avoids confrontation. The 44-year-old governor even merely laughs off her tirades, she says, “pero pailalim naman ang tira niya (he does things covertly).”

A former college mate, meanwhile, says that Evardone is “a realist,” adding, “He can rationalize any action and make sure you didn’t feel guilty about something bad you did.” The schoolmate, who declines to be named, recalls that Evardone ran for student council president under a leftist banner, although he did not seem to be Left-leaning. The schoolmate remarks, “(Evardone) wasn’t really a leftist, he was a politician.”

Malaya publisher Amado ‘Jake’ Macasaet, however, says he never had an inkling that Evardone was interested in politics while the future governor was still working for his paper. But he does remember Evardone as “polite” and as an “above-average” reporter. He also says, "Evardone never acted like a newsman, who are often arrogant, and that's probably why people trusted him.”