Ombudsman on a roll; 18 more cops sacked

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

A bemedaled senior police officer who was cited for his role in the relief operations in the aftermath of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” has been sacked by the Ombudsman.

Chief Supt. Asher Dolina, chief of the Eastern Visayas police office, and 17 other members of the Philippine National Police have been perpetually disqualified by the Ombudsman from government service over the irregular procurement of 16 defective patrol vessels worth P4.5 million in 2009.

Dolina and the others were the latest casualties in a series of dismissal orders approved by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales.

READ: Ex-CIDG exec, 18 top cops dismissed over rubber boat scam

A retired Supreme Court justice, Morales recently ordered the sacking of Makati Mayor Junjun Binay, son of Vice President Jejomar Binay, and Capiz Gov. Victor Tanco Sr., one of President Benigno Aquino III’s staunch allies.

READ: Ombudsman orders dismissal of Junjun Binay / Capiz gov, son sacked for alleged P3M extortion

Morales had also meted out the same penalty on a group of policemen, including dismissed Chief Supt. Raul Petrasanta, a personal friend of the President, for the alleged sale of AK-47 assault rifles to communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Mindanao.

READ: Purisima, Petrasanta, 9 other PNP officers dismissed from service

Dolina, a 1983 graduate of the Philippine Military Academy, was among the first batch of PNP personnel who were flown to Tacloban City to lead the search, rescue and relief operations after giant storm surges generated by Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) leveled the city on Nov. 8, 2013.

A seasoned police investigator, Dolina was lauded in 2006 for arresting then fugitive and now Sen. Gregorio Honasan II, who allegedly hatched a plot to overthrow then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Grave misconduct

In a statement, Morales said Dolina and the other respondents were found administratively liable for grave misconduct.

“The [rubber boats] were procured without public bidding and despite glaring defects already noted during [the] delivery, the boats were certified to have passed the acceptance criteria,” Morales said. (See What Went Before at the end of this article.)

Besides their dismissal from the police service, the erring PNP personnel will also lose their retirement benefits and their civil service eligibility.

Morales also approved their indictment for multiple violations of Section 3(e) of Republic Act No. 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, which bars public employees from causing “any undue injury to any party or giving any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference.”

“The significant events leading to the procurement of 16 police coastal craft would not only reveal badges of irregularities, but also of haste and preference to buy from FPT (Four Petals Trading) as the sole and only choice of supplier for coastal craft,” Morales said.

She ordered Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento and PNP Director General Ricardo Marquez to immediately implement the dismissal order.

Others sacked

Axed along with Dolina were Chief Supt. Ferdinand Yuzon, Senior Superintendents Cornelio Salinas, Thomas Abellar, Nepomuceno Magno Corpus Jr., Rico Payonga, Alex Sarmiento and Aleto Jeremy Mirasol, and Superintendents Michael Amor Filart, Job Marasigan and Henry Duque.

Also covered by the Ombudsman order were Chief Inspectors Juanito Estrebor and Renelfa Saculles, and retired Chief Superintendents Villamor Bumanglag, Reynaldo Rafal, Rizaldo Tungala Jr. and George Piano.

Antonio Retrato, chief of the PNP Accounting Division, and Jaime Sañares, PNP resident state auditor, drew the same penalties.

Four Petals representatives Roselle Ferrer and Pacita Umali were likewise recommended to be charged along with the police officers.

According to the Ombudsman findings, the PNP approved the purchase of the rubber boats in 2009 for P5 million.

The Ombudsman said the PNP initially recommended the procurement of 20 boats, but eventually bought 16 boats from Four Petals after Bumanglag, then the director of the PNP Maritime Group, asked for an increase in the budget for each boat from P250,000 to P312,000.

Defective boats

A number of defects were discovered when the patrol boats were delivered to the PNP on March 22, 2010, such as missing water temperature gauges, ampere gauges, fuel gauges, engine oil pressure gauges and speedometers.

The PNP inspection team also noted that the vessels’ engines were “not operational” and that they had “no rudder posts” while one of the boats had a damaged outrigger.

The boats did not have canvas, at least one had a hole in the back portion of the starboard side, no alternator, and had stacked-up transmission and heater plug.

“Despite the defects, they were accepted as conforming to [user’s] specification,” the Ombudsman said.

It said the procurement project was covered by undated and unnumbered procurement documents. It also noted that Four Petals, which listed its business address in a residential area, was “not a technically, legally and financially capable supplier.”

The PNP on Friday said it would comply with the order of the Ombudsman.

“The PNP respects the decision of the Ombudsman. Based on rules, we are given five days [from receipt of the order] to implement it,” Chief Supt. Wilben Mayor, spokesperson for the PNP, told reporters.

Mayor said the Ombudsman’s order had already been received by the office of Marquez, the PNP chief.

Dismissals next week

The police office tasked to implement the dismissal order was the Directorate for Personnel Records Management (DPRM).

It is expected to issue dismissal orders by next week.

In a phone interview, Mayor said the dismissed officials would pursue “legal remedies” on their own, as the PNP legal service extends assistance only when policemen are accused of offenses allegedly committed in the line of duty.

Mayor said the respondents were expected to file a motion for reconsideration in the Office of the Ombudsman, but that this would “not stay the implementation” of the dismissal orders.

He said that of the respondents, two continue to hold “key positions” in the PNP, Dolina and Yuzon, deputy director at the PNP Directorate for Plans.

Dolina was chair of the PNP Maritime Group Bids and Awards Committee in 2009 with Yuzon as the vice chair.

Some of the respondents have already retired, Mayor said, though he could not immediately name them.

Mayor said the benefits of the retirees who had been ordered dismissed would be discontinued.

What Went Before

On Sept. 22, 2011, six Philippine National Police officials were charged in the Office of the Ombudsman with graft over the alleged irregular purchase of 16 defective patrol boats for P5 million in 2009.

Charged were Senior Supt. Job Marasigan, Supt. Leodigario Visaya, Chief Inspectors Juanito Estrebor and Renalfa Saculles, all members of the inspection and acceptance committee (IAC) of the PNP Logistics Support Service (LSS), and Supt. Henry Duque and PO3 Avensuel Dy, both members of the Directorate for Comptrollership.

The PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) inquiry found that on Sept. 1, 2009, the PNP Maritime Group (PNP-MG) was given the authority to procure through a public bidding 16 “police coastal craft” for the approved amount of P5 million.

On Nov. 27, 2009, the contract was awarded to Four Petals Trading, which had the winning bid offer of P4,799,984. The contract for the 16 boats was signed a month later between Senior Supt. Asher Dolina, chair of the bids and awards committee, and Pacita Umali, owner of Four Petals.

On Aug. 2, 2010, Four Petals requested the chief of the PNP-MG’s logistics office to inspect the boats after delivery on March 22.

The inspection team found that the engines were all diesel-fed, instead of gasoline-fed, and that some of the boats were defective.

Recommendations were made on Aug. 23, 2010, Sept. 3, 2010 and Oct. 18, 2010, for the supplier to repair and repaint the craft before the PNP formally accepts the boats.

After Four Petals ignored the request to repair the defective boats, Chief Supt. Francisco Don Montenegro, then PNP-MG director, sent the company a notice of termination for nonperformance of obligations.

It was later found that the four accused, led by Marasigan, conducted an earlier inspection of the boats and accepted them in July 2010 without the knowledge of the PNP-MG, the only entity authorized to accept the boats.

The issuance of the “premature or untimely” payment was processed through a fake report of the IAC-LSS that was attached to the disbursement voucher.

The case was separate from another allegedly irregular transaction involving the PNP’s acquisition, also in 2009, of 75 defective rubber boats worth P131.5 million.

The rubber boats, bought after Tropical Storm “Ondoy,” turned out to be incompatible with the outboard motors that came with them.

Separate charges of graft were filed in the Sandiganbayan in February 2013.

Police officials involved in the case are retired PNP Chief Jesus Verzosa, Police Deputy Directors General Jefferson Soriano and Benjamin Belarmino Jr., Directors Luizo Ticman, Ronald Roderos and Romeo Hilomen, Chief Supt. Herold Ubalde, and Chief Supt. Villamor Bumanglag.

The patrol boats were bought with the same funds used to procure the rubber boats and 93 outboard motors. Inquirer Research

Sources: Inquirer Archives