Zaldy Ampatuan loses bid to reverse dishonesty, misconduct charge

Zaldy Ampatuan. AFP FILE PHOTO

The Court of Appeals (CA) affirmed the decision of the Office of the Ombudsman finding former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Zaldy Ampatuan guilty of serious dishonesty and grave misconduct following a lifestyle check that found him with unexplained wealth and underdeclared assets worth P70.67 million from 2000 to 2009.

In a June 26, 2015 decision, the Ombudsman found Ampatuan administratively liable and ordered him dismissed from service with accessory penalties of cancellation of eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits, perpetual disqualification from holding office, and bar from taking civil service examination.

If the penalty of dismissal can no longer be imposed, he was ordered to pay a fine equivalent to his one year salary.

Ampatuan sought a reinvestigation which was denied by the Ombudsman in a September 23, 2015 ruling for lack of merit, prompting him to take the case to the Court of Appeals.

In his petition, he argued that the Ombudsman erred in finding him administratively guilty even without any direct evidence of concealment of his assets.

“We find the contention bereft of merit,” the Court of Appeals said in denying his petition.

“The evidence presented by the [Office of the Ombudsman] well supports that petitioner did not only fail to disclose all his and his wife’s assets but also failed to provide an explanation as to how he and/or his wife acquired the assets,” the appeals court said in a decision made public Thursday. The decision is written by Associate Justice Henri Jean Paul B. Inting.

The decision of the Ombudsman stemmed from the joint-affidavit complaint filed in September 2010 by the lifestyle check panel of the Office of the Ombudsman against the then ARMM governor for dishonesty and grave misconduct.

The panel noted that Ampatuan served as assemblyman of the ARMM Regional Legislative Assembly prior to 1998 when he was elected as Mayor of Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao for three terms from 1998-2007.

Ampatuan, however, did not finish his last term as mayor from 2004-2007 after he ran and won as ARMM Regional Governor in August 2005 and was re-elected in 2008.

The petitioner, according to the Ombudsman, submitted his statement of assets, liabilities and networth (SALN) for the years 2000-2009 where he declared a networth of P6.99 million with no liabilities until it ballooned to a networth of P19.29 million with total assets of P36.49 million and total liabilities of P17.2 million in his 2009 SALN.

Ampatuan also declared the Maguindanao Pawnshop as his only business interest.

However, it was discovered that Ampatuan owns at least 38 houses and lots in Shariff Aguak, Cotabato City, Davao City and Metro Manila amounting to P58.48 million that were not declared in his SALN.

The Ombudsman said the total value of acquisition per year by the petitioner with respect to the houses and lots far exceeded his annual net.

On the other hand, the Ombudsman said the former ARMM governor and his wife Bai Johaira Midtimbang, who served as municipal mayor of Datu Hoffer, Maguindanao, owned a total of 24 vehicles worth at least P46.96 million.

It was also discovered that Ampatuan has 26 firearms registered in his name worth P6 million and that he went out of the country 16 times in a span of five years.

The Ombudsman said Ampatuan’s unexplained wealth and underdeclared assets for the years 2000-2009 amounted to P70,671,176.

He is also one of the principal suspects of the bloody Maguindanao massacre, which saw 58 people killed including 34 journalists six years ago, on November 23, 2009.

He is currently detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City with some of his relatives linked to the massacre.

The decision is concurred in by Associate Justice Ramon R. Garcia and Associate Justice Leoncia R. Dimagiba.  Tetch Torres-Tupas, INQUIRER.net and Ma. Daphne Crystal Umali, trainee