Council seeks charges over tampered Makati ordinances

Facade of the Makati City Hall. (Inquirer File Photo)

MANILA, Philippines — The Makati City Council’s Committee on Laws, Rules, and Ethics has accused a councilor and two city hall employees of falsifying official legislative documents by altering and reusing pages of draft ordinances, a move that could lead to criminal and administrative charges.

In a report adopted by the council during its Oct. 8 regular session, the committee said Councilor Rolando Duka Alvarez Jr., Atty. Dindo R. Cervantes — the chief of staff of Vice Mayor Kid Peña — and a certain Ms. Alerama tampered with official documents by “ante-dating the receiving stamps, swapping pages, and reusing old signature pages” to make it appear that the filings were legitimate.

“By their actions, they compromised the integrity of official records, undermined the legislative process, and set a dangerous precedent of manipulating official documents to suit political convenience,” the committee said in its report.

The panel, chaired by Councilor Fernando Felix “Dino” L. Imperial and vice-chaired by Councilor Nemesio “King” S. Yabut Jr., recommended that appropriate administrative and criminal proceedings be filed against the three, saying their actions violated council rules and may constitute an offense under the Revised Penal Code.

The controversy began on Sept. 12, when members of the minority bloc filed five draft ordinances for first reading. Imperial later found irregularities in the documents during a pre-session review, noting that what seemed like minor edits were actually “substantial revisions” that altered the content of the measures.

Further investigation revealed that new versions of the ordinances had been printed and substituted for the originals on Sept. 15, allegedly with the help of staff from the Office of the Secretary to the Sangguniang Panlungsod (OSSP), who were reportedly unaware of the changes. The substituted versions carried the same receiving stamp dated Sept. 12, and reused signature pages from the earlier filing.

“The act of instructing OSSP personnel to affix the same ‘date and time received’ stamp on the substituted documents, coupled with reuse of the signature pages from the original set, constitutes a clear falsification of official records,” the report stated.

During the council’s Sept. 24 session, the OSSP secretary confirmed that tampered versions were submitted on Sept. 15 and falsely presented as the originals. The revelation triggered heated exchanges on the session floor, with Imperial denouncing the act as “a criminal offense under falsification of public documents.”

The committee rejected the defense of “good faith” from those involved, saying the deliberate misrepresentation and concealment demonstrated intent to deceive.

“The minority bloc — known for espousing transparency and accountability — is now accused of doing the exact opposite,” the report added.

The council’s adoption of the committee’s report makes its recommendation to pursue administrative and criminal cases the official stance of the Makati City Council. The inclusion of the vice mayor’s chief of staff among those named in the report, it said, “seriously puts into doubt the vice mayor’s claim of political neutrality.”

“The recommendation is necessary to uphold the sanctity of public records and to preserve the integrity of the Sangguniang Panlungsod as an institution,” the committee said.