Villarosa gets 90 years for illegal quarrying permits

The Sandiganbayan has sentenced former Occidental Mindoro Rep. Jose Villarosa to a maximum of 90 years imprisonment after finding him guilty of allowing quarrying operations in San Jose town without permits from the provincial governor.

In a 20-page decision promulgated in open court on Thursday, the antigraft court’s First Division held Villarosa liable for nine counts of violating Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

For each count, he was meted out the penalty of imprisonment from a minimum of six years and one month to a maximum of 10 years. He was also perpetually disqualified from public office.

As mayor of San Jose from 2010 to 2013, Villarosa was accused of unlawfully issuing extraction permits to private quarrying operators. Section 138 of the Local Government Code of 1991, however, allows only the provincial governor to regulate and levy taxes on extraction activities.

The questioned permits had been issued to Gem CHB Maker, Timoteo Aguilar, Arvi Dolojan, Andres Pablo, R.D. Go Concrete Products, Jojo Pojas, Emilia T. De Lara, Antonio Villaroza, and Jessie Glass and Aluminum Enterprise, from September 2010 to June 2011.

In its decision, the court rejected Villarosa’s claim that the provincial governor’s exclusive authority is not vested in the absence of a valid provincial ordinance. It said Section 138 of the LGC was a clear and explicit provision.

Villarosa also could not claim to be in good faith, the court said, because he defied Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Ruben Soldedad’s cease and desist orders and communications that told the mayor he had no right to issue permits.

While Villarosa claimed to not have received any part of the profit from quarrying activities, the decision stated that the fact San Jose municipality did not sustain any injury is irrelevant.

Citing the profits of the quarrying operators, the court said he violated Section 3(e) of the graft law’s prohibition on giving any private party unwarranted benefits.

“These private individuals clearly benefited from the illegal issuance by the accused of the extraction permits since this paved the way for them to conduct extraction and quarrying activities without the proper authorization—presumably, to their own profit and advantage, for why else would they persist even after repeated notices that the activities they were engaged in were illegal?” the decision read.

Justice Reynaldo P. Cruz penned the decision,  with the concurrence of Justices Efren N. de la Cruz and Michael Frederick L. Musngi./rga