Sandiganbayan convicts ex-Nueva Ecija gov for ‘partiality’ in vehicle donations
MANILA, Philippines – A former governor of Nueva Ecija has been convicted by the Sandiganbayan for graft after the provincial government, then under his watch, donated vehicles to two preferred municipalities in 2007.
According to the anti-graft court’s 57-page decision promulgated last July 26, ex-governor Tomas Joson III’s move to donate vehicles to the municipality of Quezon, then headed by his nephew Eduardo Basilio Joson; and Bongabon, under former Mayor Amelia Gamilla was illegal as the vehicles were not deemed ‘unserviceable.’
Donated to Quezon town included were a mobile clinic, a Toyota Revo, a Ford F-150 pickup truck, a Nissan Urvan. Meanwhile, donated to Bongabon were a Nissan Terrano and a Ford Expedition.
In the ruling penned by Seventh Division chairperson and Associate Justice Dolores Gomez-Estoesta, the anti-graft court mentioned that other towns also requested for vehicles from the provincial government. However, the bulk of it went to the towns of Quezon and Bongabon.
Joson himself admitted they were not able to grant requests from the town of Talugtug, because it had ran out of vehicles to donate. However, Associate Justice Bayani Jacinto noted that there were three donations of Isuzu Elf trucks to Bongabon aside from the above-mentioned vehicles.
Joson said this was because the trucks were what Bongabon and Quezon had asked for.
“The allusion of accused Tomas Joson to the “non-availability of other vehicles” to deprive the other political subdivisions of Nueva Ecija of “heavy equipment” or similar luxury vehicles given to the Municipalities of Quezon and Bongabon now seemed downright petty,” the decision read.
“The donation certainly reeked of manifest partiality for these municipalities. Had accused Tomas Joson not exhibited such obvious bias, he could have simply made a more equitable distribution of the heavy equipment or service vehicles which would have benefited all of the Municipalities who had made similar requests,” it added.
Various sections of the Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 were also cited, in relation to how vehicles could be transferred between local government units (LGUs) without pay.
“The records do not likewise disclose that there were inventories showing that the same were unserviceable for any cause or were no longer needed by the Provincial Government at the time the same were donated to the Municipalities of Quezon and Bongabon,” it added.
Joson claimed that the donation was out of concern for his constituents in the said towns. However, Joson’s successor former governor Aurelio Umali in 2007 claimed that the provincial government’s ability to deliver services was “crippled” due to lack of usable vehicles.
The Sandiganbayan also noted that Joson himself cannot justify his claims that the vehicles were no longer needed by the provincial government — that these were in excess of what was needed to render public service.
“While he alleged that there was an inventory of the Provincial Government’s properties, and that the donations only involved those items that exceeded the needs of its constituents, the fact of the matter was that there was nothing in the records which could support this claim,” the court explained.
With the decision, Tomas Joson was found guilty of three counts of graft, with jail sentences of six years and one month to a maximum of 10 years per count.
Meanwhile, Eduardo Joson was found guilty of one count of graft while Gamilla was found guilty of two counts. Both will also suffer the same jail sentences per each count.
The two Josons were acquitted of another graft charge as the Sandiganbayan said the vehicles were used properly for public service. All three have been ordered perpetually disqualified from holding public office by the anti-graft court. /muf
