Cebu town mayor convicted of graft, draws jail term

Mayor Cynthia Moreno

CEBU CITY—A division of the antigraft court Sandiganbayan has found a mayor and seven other officials of a town in Cebu province guilty of graft for the purchase of P1.1 million in construction materials using public funds without bidding.

The first division of the Sandiganbayan also sentenced Mayor Cynthia Moreno of Aloguinsan town and the seven other officials to a prison term of six to 10 years and ordered them perpetually barred from holding public office.

Aside from Moreno, convicted and sentenced were municipal civil registrar Pepito Manguilimotan, municipal budget officer Nonela Villegas, municipal agricultural officer Marilyn Flordeliza, municipal assessor John Lim, municipal engineer Orven Nengasca and utility workers Gertrudes Ababon and Emilia Luz Celis.

Moreno said she was shocked when she learned about the decision, dated June 5. Her lawyers, she said, would file a motion for reconsideration.

In the ruling penned by Associate Justice Efren de la Cruz, the court said the eight officials gave “unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference” to the construction supply firm Diamond Interior Industries Inc. (DIIC), which sold the P1.1 million worth of aluminum panels and other materials to the town.

The decision said the purchase was made without public bidding.

“The court is convinced,” said the decision. It said evidence showed that there was an attempt to hold a public bidding after the contract to purchase the materials has been consummated.

The decision was concurred in by two other justices of the division—Rodolfo Ponferrada and Rafael Lagos.

The case stemmed from the complaint filed by Felimon Georsua Jr., former Aloguinsan councilor, accusing Moreno and her subordinates of entering into a contract to purchase materials for use on a new municipal building without public bidding.

Georsua, in his complaint, said he was informed about the absence of the bidding by Maricar Rosario, municipal treasurer.

A bidding was eventually scheduled on Aug. 25, 2007, five months after the purchase order signed by Moreno was received by DIIC on March 22, 2007.

State auditor Esperanza Obatay, leader of the audit team that checked on the financial transactions of Aloguinsan, confirmed that the purchase did not go through bidding.

Obatay said the audit team found that during the August bidding, forms were filled out and that the price quotations of DIIC and another company, MGJ Installer Corp., were printed using the same type of printer, indicating collusion.

Another sign of irregularity found by the Commission on Audit  team was the  way prices were written on DIIC forms. Some prices were printed out, while others were handwritten.

“This was unusual,” said Obatay, who recommended the refund by DIIC of the P1.1 million paid to it.

In her defense, Moreno told the court that the complaint against her was politically motivated since Georsua belonged to her rival political party.

She defended the project as urgent, saying the installation of aluminum panels on the new Aloguinsan municipal hall was recommended by an architect to protect the new structure from damage from long-term exposure to saltwater as the structure is near the sea.

She said she gave instructions to start the procurement process since the funds were ready and that documents shown to  her by the bids and awards committee pointed to DIIC as the sole distributor of the needed materials.

The Ombudsman Visayas, which had investigated the case, said the August bidding held five months after the purchase order had been signed was a “mock bidding.”