Prosecutors ask court to suspend from office Bacolod mayor over graft

Bacolod City Mayor Monico Puentevella attends his arraignment on May 22. Nestor Corrales/INQUIRER.net

State lawyers have asked the Sandiganbayan to suspend from office a Bacolod mayor as he faces graft charges over the alleged overprice of computers when he was a congressman.

In a motion before the antigraft court fourth division, prosecutors sought the suspension from office pending the litigation of Bacolod City Mayor Monico Puentevella, who faced a graft charge for the alleged overprice in the purchase of computers worth P26 million, which was funded by his pork barrel funds when he was congressman of Bacolod.

The prosecutors told the court Republic Act No. 3019 or Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act mandated the suspension from office of public officials who faced valid charges before the antigraft court.

The panel also said jurisprudence dictated that the suspension pendent lite was automatic and should not be subject to interpretation by the court.

The prosecutors urged the court to issue the suspension and not defer it due to Puentevella’s petition for certiorari pending before the Supreme Court.

“It is worthy to note that the provision regarding suspension pendent lite of incumbent public officer is mandatory … To hold in abeyance accused Puentevella’s suspension pendent lite just because of the pendency of his petition before the Supreme Court would undermine and render nugatory the mandatory character of Section 13, R. A. 3019,” the motion said.

He and two others are accused of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for the alleged irregular purchase of IT packages for public elementary and secondary schools in the city in 2002, 2004 and 2005, using his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) when he was then a congressman.

The mayor had been denied by the court to go to Zurich, Switzerland, to attend the 65th Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) Congress. Puentevella had said his attendance was necessary for his reappointment to Fifa’s marketing and TV committee to ensure a Philippine representative in Fifa.

But he had been allowed by the court to attend the annual World Cities Summit Mayors Forum 2015 (WCSMF) held on June 8 to June 10 in New York City.