Sandigan acquits Joey Marquez of overpricing

THE SANDIGANBAYAN Wednesday acquitted former Parañaque City Mayor Joey Marquez of charges that he had bought overpriced brooms 15 years ago.

In clearing Marquez and six others, the Sandiganbayan said the allegations of overpricing were not supported by convincing evidence.

“Without competent proof that the transactions were overpriced, then the prosecution has failed to establish that the transactions involving the purchase of ‘walis ting-ting’ are grossly and manifestly disadvantageous to the city government of Parañaque,” the anti-graft court said.

Also cleared were city accountant Marilou Tanael; budget officer Flocerfida Babida; general services officer Ofelia Caunan; Marquez’s head staff Ailyn Romea; RDJ Enterprises owner Ricardo Adriano; and Real Trading and Zaro Trading owner Realina Ty.

Their supporters broke out in applause after the verdict was read in open court.

“I’m very happy. At least justice is served. It shows that I have not done anything wrong,” Marquez told reporters.

The charges against the Parañaque City officials were based on a report by a Commission on Audit (COA) team led by Fatima Bermudez which found irregularities and discrepancies in the disbursement vouchers and supporting documents covering the purchase of brooms from 1996 to 1998.

The audit team noted the absence of a public bidding in procuring the items, and also said the brooms were bought at P15 and P25 per piece, when they cost only P11 per piece.

But according to the Sandiganbayan, the conclusion that there was an overprice was erroneous because of lack of convincing evidence.

The court said that its ruling was also guided by the Supreme Court’s earlier decision to acquit Marquez in another case involving the procurement of broomsticks.

It cited Bermudez’s testimony that in evaluating the reasonableness of the prices, the audit team did not get signed price quotations from the different dealers where the items were canvassed.

It noted that the audit team compared the prices of the brooms bought by the city government with those bought by the audit team from various supermarkets, with the price determined by the COA’s Price Evaluation Division, and the prices provided by the city auditor’s office of Las Piñas.