Public works exec fired over hidden assets

The Office of the Ombudsman on Friday dismissed the Metro Manila director of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for faking his statement of assets and liabilities for almost four decades.

Acting Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro ordered DPWH National Capital Region Director Josefino Rigor dismissed “after he was adjudged administratively liable for serious dishonesty and falsification of official documents.”

Casimiro said Rigor committed “willful nondisclosure of properties” registered in the name in his wife Anastacia and business interests in two firms, Kontrata Construction and Development Corp. and Disneyland Bus Line Inc.

The Ombudsman said Rigor’s SALNs from 1972 to 1998 had “two different versions” and lacked official receipt markings that would prove they were officially received by the DPWH as it lacked markings of the DPWH.

“From the foregoing, it can be deduced that there was malice or willful intention on the part of Josefino Rigor to commit a dishonest act when he surreptitiously reconstructed his SALNs and misrepresented these … as copies of then existing the DPWH official records,” Casimiro said.

Rigor had earlier been convicted of the lighter penalty of simple negligence and was fined P1,000. But the DPWH asserted its “legal interest” in the case and sought for a verdict commensurate to the offense.

Casimiro has directed DPWH to immediately enforce the dismissal order.