Funds for Macau trips get mayor in trouble

BACOLOD CITY—Mayor Melecio Yap and three other officials of Escalante City were suspended for 90 days by the Ombudsman for their role in the illegal disbursal of funds for the travel of eight councilors in 2009 to Macau.

Vice Mayor Santiago Maravillas took over as acting mayor on Wednesday after the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) enforced the suspension order issued by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Also suspended were Escalante Treasurer Wilfredo Ruiz, acting Accountant Arnulfa Rivera-Donoso and Budget Officer Roy Caralde.

Yap denied any wrongdoing, saying that the funds were used for official business—to finance the travel expenses of eight councilors who attended the Philippine Councilors League gathering in Macau, known as Asia’s version of Las Vegas, the world’s gambling capital.

Ariel Malunes, the mayor’s lawyer, said they filed a petition for injunction to stop the suspension order. The petition remained pending at the Court of Appeals.

Both Yap, of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, and Maravillas, of the Liberal Party-United Negros Alliance, are running for congressman in Negros Occidental’s first district.

The suspension stemmed from the administrative case filed by former councilor Armando Alcos who said the funds released for the Macau trip of the councilors should have been allocated through a measure passed by the city council and signed by the vice mayor and not disbursed by the office of the mayor.

In a decision dated Nov. 11, the Ombudsman said the respondents violated the Local Government Code when Yap released funds for the councilors’ trip.

The complaint said the funds were released “without authority” from the city council and “in violation of certain sections of the Local Government Code.”

The release of the funds, which were charged to the budget of the city council, was made possible by the mayor and the three other Escalante officials without approval by the vice mayor, who exercises jurisdiction over the city council as a presiding officer.

The vice mayor at the time of the release of the funds was Santiago Barcelona, who is also former mayor of Escalante.