For overpriced meds, ex-mayor gets 6-10 years

MANILA, Philippines—The Sandiganbayan has sentenced a former municipal mayor in Compostela Valley to 6-10 years in prison for buying overpriced medicine for his town’s Botika ng Bayan project.

The Office of the Ombudsman, which filed the case against former Montevista Mayor Salvador S. Jauod Sr., said the latter was found guilty of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for authorizing the purchase of overpriced and soon-to-expire drugs from DMI Medical Supply in 2004. The drugs cost P9,999,973.40.

“Judging from the manner he discharged his duties, he omitted to act in a situation where there is a duty to act, not inadvertently, but willfully and intentionally with a conscious indifference to the consequences,” the court said.

It noted that Jauod’s repeated failure to exercise his functions as required of public officers amounted to gross inexcusable negligence.

Aside from imprisonment, the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division also sentenced Jauod to perpetual disqualification from public office.

He was also ordered to pay the town of Montevista P6,356,763.44, the amount the drugs were found to be overpriced by.

The Ombudsman also noted that some drugs had expiry dates of under two years from the time of distribution.