Ombudsman dismisses 2 Igbaras execs over P1M ‘ghost project’
Orders criminal raps vs Mayor
Criminal graft charges will be filed against a mayor and two top executives in one Southern Iloilo town. Worse still, following a guilty verdict on administrative charges of dishonesty, meted upon the mayor’s associates are dismissal from service with all the accessory penalties. If it’s any consolation, the town mayor was excluded from the administrative sanction based on the “Aguinaldo Doctrine” having won his reelection bid in the recent elections.
The subject mayor is Jaime Esmeralda of Igbaras, Iloilo while co-respondents are town treasurer Cynthia Cabanero and private secretary to the mayor Pio Elumba.
The Order was handed down by the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas received by the Iloilo field office Tuesday. Tanodbayan Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez approved the Order penned by Director Virginia Palanca-Santiago.
Docketed as OMB-V-A-05-0014-A, mandated to implement the Ombudsman Order are Acting Bureau of Finance Local Government Finance Regional Director Melba Sullivan and Interior and Local Government Regional Director Evelyn Trompeta.
The two lady regional directors are under orders to comply with the Order as a Compliance Report was further sought.
“Compliance is respectfully enjoined consistent with Section 3 (e) of RA 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act) and Section 15 (3) of RA 6770 (Ombudsman Act of 1989),” excerpts of the Ombudsman Order furnished to The News Today (TNT) went.
The trio’s legal woes stemmed from a P1 million road project then funded from the pork barrel fund of then Senator Franklin Drilon.
Project implementation faced questions thereafter with graft charges ultimately filed by Monsignor Meliton Oso of the People’s Graftwatch of Iloilo.
The original Ombudsman Order was dated February 2007 yet only got the final approval by Ombudsman higher-ups in November 2008. It was only in Tuesday when the approved Order reached Iloilo field office for implementation.
Ombudsman procedures call for the immediate implementation of its Orders. Only a duly issued Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) from the Court can prevent such with none realized as of press time.
The government’s anti-graft probers ruled against the defense of the three respondent officials saying based on evidence gathered, the P1 million road project became a “ghost project.”
The P1 million Drilon assistance was aimed at the rehabilitation of a road network in Igbaras, Iloilo. Initial stages of the project faced claims of irregularities starting off from the bidding process. The government’s Commission on Audit (COA) then dipped its hands on the matter.
The Ombudsman on the other hand focused its probe on actual road rehabilitation.
“It is very apparent on the physical appearance of the road that it was not graded where some portions only measure 3.60 m to 3.90 m which is deficient to the 5.0 m stated in the Program of Works. In addition, to that, there were no culverts laid out. The positive attestation of the constituents that there was no implementation of the project clearly established that the aforementioned project is indeed a “ghost project” to the prejudice of the government. It is also well established that the disbursements of funds were done with malice in line with the conspiracy perpetrated by the herein respondents,” the Order stated.
Further noted was the Ombudsman’s discovery that the town engineer was spared from involvement in the course of the project’s actual implementation.
“Anent the participation of respondent Mayor Esmeralda, it is highly anomalous to know that he did not allow the Municipal Engineer to supervise the work considering that it is the duty of the latter to supervise infrastructure projects of the municipality and specifically it is the responsibility of the Mayor to oversee that the project is well implemented as well as the approving authority,” the Order went.