The wife of alleged narcogeneral Vicente Loot faces malversation and graft charges in connection with an anomalous P500,000 financial grant in 2007.
In a statement on Thursday, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales said she found probable cause to charge before the Sandiganbayan former Daanbantayan mayor Ma. Luisa Loot and councilor Samuel Moralde for one count of malversation of public funds and one count of graft or violation of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Records showed that in January 2007, the local government unit of Daanbantayan in Cebu granted a P500,000 loan to RBA Quail Raisers Association for the expansion of its agribusiness. Moralde is the chairperson of RBA.
The Ombudsman later found out that Mrs. Loot and Moralde failed to comply with the conditions in the memorandum of agreement (MOA), such as the periodic monitoring and evaluation to ascertain the progress and accomplishment of the projects, proper utilization of the fund and compliance, as well as monitoring of records of all transactions of the quail raising project to ensure its repayment.
The loan also remained unpaid, the Ombudsman said.
Mrs. Loot also entered into the MOA without prior authority from the Sanggunian Bayan and without observing due diligence in the grant of the loan to ensure its repayment.
In her resolution, Ombudsman Morales said there was no periodic monitoring or evaluation of Moralde’s quail egg farming.
“Non-enforcement of RBA’s contractual obligations by Loot is indicative of negligence and/or grant of unwarranted benefit, preference or advantage in favor of respondent Moralde, who, for his part, also failed to comply with the provisions of the MOA,” Morales said.
The Ombudsman also found no merit in Mrs. Loot’s defense that the RBA sought a condonation of the loan following the devastation caused by Typhoon Frank in 2008.
Mrs. Loot also justified that RBA’s documents were destroyed during Supertyphoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) in November 2013.
“Nothing in the records show the existence of any request for condonation or any action taken by the SB on the request,” Morales said.
Morales also said that “the fact remains that prior and after the typhoon, respondent Loot failed to conduct monitoring and evaluation to ascertain the progress of the project and proper utilization of the funds.”
“No record of any transactions related to the implementation of the project was submitted in evidence,” Morales added.
Under the Revised Penal Code, malversation is a criminal offense against a public official who has custody or control of public funds and misappropriates, takes, or through abandonment or negligence, permitted another person to take the funds.
Meanwhile, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act under Section 3(e) penalizes public officials who cause any undue injury to any party, including the government, or who give any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of his or her official administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence.
Mrs. Loot served as Daanbantayan mayor in 2007 but lost her reelection bid in 2013. Her husband took over her position in 2016. He was accused by President Duterte of coddling and being under the payroll of drug lords. IDL/rga
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