Ex-Cebu mayor gets 12 years for malversation

The Sandiganbayan has convicted the former mayor of Tudela, Cebu, of malversation for failing to account for 350 bags of cement that should have been delivered to the municipality in June 2004.

In a decision dated Aug. 10, the court’s Seventh Division sentenced former Mayor Rogelio Baquerfo Sr. to imprisonment of 12 years to 18 years and eight months.

Baquerfo was also ordered to pay a fine of P57,750 with interest of 6 percent per annum from the finality of the decision. He was also perpetually disqualified from holding any public office.

Baquerfo denied before the court that he had custody of the cement worth P339,233.33 and bought with municipal funds.

However, this was contrary to his own admission in a clarificatory hearing held when the case was still under investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman.

A transcript of the Ombudsman hearing showed he answered in the affirmative when asked if the cement was delivered to his residence.

It also showed he took the municipality’s cement as a replacement for the cement he and his wife earlier lent to a beautification project in 2003.

The court noted he merely recanted the admission and did not explain why he issued it at the Ombudsman stage.

“Except for his bare denial of custody of the subject public property, no other evidence was offered by accused to rebut the evidence presented by the prosecution,” the decision read.

The court also noted that Baquerfo’s successor, Demetrio Granada, also demanded the return of the cement bags, to no avail.

Citing Article 217 of the Revised Penal Code, it said the failure to comply with such demands “shall be prima facie evidence that he has put such missing funds or property to personal use.”

As an epilogue, the court said Baquerfo’s intentions to simply replace loaned cement were “not enough justification to brush aside the processes and/or existing rules when it comes to handling public property.”

Associate Justice Zaldy V. Trespeses penned the resolution, with the concurrence of Associate Justices Alexander G. Gesmundo and Ma. Theresa Dolores C. Gomez-Estoesta.