Retired Navy captain indicted for graft over Baseco funds

The Ombudsman has ordered the indictment of retired Navy Capt. Proceso Maligalig for the alleged illegal withdrawal of more than P100 million from the government-owned firm Bataan Shipyard and Engineering Corp. Inc. (Baseco) which Maligalig once served as board member.

Maligalig and fellow former Baseco board member Agustinia Avelino would be charged with 13 counts of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, according to a statement issued on Thursday by the Ombudsman’s media bureau.

They allegedly made 13 cash withdrawals from October 2008 to December 2010 without declaring how the money would be spent and without supporting the withdrawals with documents. Because of the absence of proof, the Ombudsman refused to give weight to their claim that the funds were used properly.

Maligalig and Avelino, the Ombudsman said, “stressed that the funds were justifiably used but no single piece of evidence was presented to corroborate their statement.”

The former Baseco officials, the Ombudsman added, also failed to fully explain “the purposes for which the withdrawn amounts were intended and whether said purposes were truly served.”

The Ombudsman said withdrawing tens of millions of pesos from Baseco’s coffers, without documents to show they were properly used, “constitutes bad faith.”

“Certainly, these repeated withdrawals of Baseco funds resulted in quantifiable, pecuniary losses to the corporation,” the resolution said.

For lack of probable cause, the Ombudsman dismissed the same complaint against other Baseco officials—Wilmar Lucero, Rene Cruz, Gloria Cortez, Socorro Santos and Anthony Jay Consunji.

Maligalig, who had been spokesperson of Reform the Armed Forces Movement which used to be composed of rebel soldiers, is already facing a graft and malversation case at the antigraft court Sandiganbayan for allegedly pocketing rent paid to Baseco.

In that case, state prosecutors accused him of receiving at least P3.5 million from Northstar Transport Facilities Inc. as “full settlement” for lease arrears from May 2009 to February 2010 which totaled P4.8 million.