MANILA, Philippines - Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez yesterday ordered the filing of criminal charges against three incumbent municipal mayors and a former mayor in Luzon after finding sufficient evidence to indict them for various offenses before the Sandiganbayan.
In separate resolutions, Gutierrrez approved the filing of graft and malversation charges against Mayor Faustino Alandy Silang of Tayabas, Quezon; malversation charges against former mayor Bernardito Abapo of Milagros, Masbate; and two counts of falsification of public documents against Mayor Leoncio Kiat of Echague, Isabela.
Gutierrez said a malversation case will also be lodged against Mayor Florante Raspado of Jones, Isabela, along with seven others, namely barangay chairman Raymundo Claro, Armenio Verdadero, Heherson Dulay, Rogelio Lorenzo Sr., Benjamin Santiago Sr., Federico Serafica, and Miguel Ramos.
She also ordered the filing of graft charges against Venacio Santidad of the Procurement, Supply and Property Management Service of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and a private respondent, a certain Robert Ngo.
In a 16-page resolution, Silang was ordered charged for misappropriating P331,735, which formed part of a P1-million loan obtained from the Presidential Management Staff under the “One Town, One Product, One Million” program of the government.
Investigation showed that the amount was not properly disbursed and that “some of the purported recipients denied having received the amounts or having incurred indebtedness in the amounts indicated in the corresponding disbursement vouchers.”
Abapo, on the other hand, was ordered charged with malversation for incurring unliquidated cash advances totaling P26,509,594 from January 2002 to December 2004.
The falsification case against Kiat, Raspado and the other respondents, meanwhile, stemmed from the alleged “ghost delivery” of 21 Mitsubishi Delica vans worth over P7.5 million to the province of Isabela in 2003.
Records show that the winning bidder, Super Car Center, issued the sales invoice for the purchase of the vehicles in favor of the DOTC, the procurement agency, although at the time, no payment had yet been made.
On the same day, a certificate of acceptance was issued by the DOTC’s Procurement, Supply and Management Service and Ngo received and acknowledged payment for the vehicles although these were not delivered to the intended beneficiaries.
Investigation showed that the respondents signed the invoice receipt of property upon the alleged prodding of Ngo who assured them he would help facilitate the delivery of the vehicles.
The vehicles, it turned out though, had been resold to and in the possession of third persons although they were purportedly received by the respondents based on how one Delica van intended for Rizal, Santiago City was found in the possession of one Eusebio Corpuz, who claimed to have bought the vehicle from the Super Car Center. - By Michael Punongbayan
