Ex-mayor convicted of rival’s kin slay faces graft raps for tax misuse
A former Occidental Mindoro mayor and congressman, who was earlier convicted of the murder of his political rival’s sons, was arrested for graft by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Wednesday.
According to a return of arrest warrant served at the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division, Jose Villarosa was arrested on Jan. 6 for the offense of graft and technical malversation at the port in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro.
According to the NBI report signed by special investigator Richard Sison, Villarosa peacefully surrendered to authorities. He was brought in at the Sandiganbayan on Thursday to post his P432,000 bail from 12 counts of graft and 12 counts of technical malversation.
Under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, graft is a criminal offense of giving undue advantage or causing injury to government or a private party.
Meanwhile, technical malversation under Section 220 of the Revised Penal Code is an offense of using public funds or property for purposes other than which it is intended for by law.
Villarosa was accused of using P2.92 million tobacco excise tax when he was San Jose mayor from 2010 to 2011 to projects which did not benefit farmer beneficiaries.
Under the sin tax law, a portion of the revenue from higher excise tax on tobacco should be allotted to programs for farmers.
Instead of benefitting the farmers, the funds were spent for multi-cab vehicles, bus rentals, mixed gravel and sand, medicines, meals and snacks, fuel and lubricants, repair and maintenance of a service vehicle, even for the purchase of Christmas lights, the Ombudsman prosecutors said.
Villarosa and his coaccused municipal accountant Pablo Alvaro were charged with graft and technical malversation for using these funds for other purposes not authorized under the law, causing undue injury to government and the farmer beneficiaries.
In 2006, Villarosa was sentenced to death by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court for masterminding the 1997 murder of the sons of his political nemesis Ricardo Quintos.
READ: What Went Before: Quintos brothers’ killings
On Dec. 13, 1994, the siblings Michael and Paul Quintos were gunned down by a group of men while they were attending a birthday party in Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro.
A group of farmers called the Mamburao 6 were convicted of carrying out the execution.
In 2008, the Court of Appeals overturned the conviction due to lack of evidence. Villarosa’s acquittal raised speculations former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo used her influence to reverse the conviction of the husband of her loyal ally Amelita Villarosa, who succeeded her husband in Congress.
Villarosa’s wife was then Deputy Speaker and a member of the ruling coalition party Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino under the Arroyo administration.
While Villarosa and three farmers were acquitted, the three other farmers were found guilty of two counts of murder.
In 2014, the Ombudsman indicted Villarosa for 10 counts of graft for allegedly awarding extraction permits to several private quarry companies from 2010 to 2011 without securing authority from the Occidental Mindoro governor.
Villarosa was the mayor of San Jose from 2010 to 2013 and served as Occidental Mindoro representative from 1992 to 1998.
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