Slain Isabela town vice mayor convicted for ghost van deliveries

Slain Jones, Isabela vice mayor Florante Raspado. FACEBOOK PHOTO

The Sandiganbayan has convicted for falsification a former mayor from Isabela who was just assassinated in June.

In a decision by the Sandiganbayan First Division, former Jones mayor Florante Raspado was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of falsification in violation of the Revised Penal Code.

Raspado was a vice mayor when he and his aide were killed by two armed men who opened fire at a council session he presided on June 19.

READ: Jones, Isabela vice mayor, security aide gunned down in municipal hall

Raspado and the aide Anthony Agarin died from bullet wounds in their heads and bodies.

Arrested after a chase were Michael Deocariza, a former soldier, and Reynaldo, a retired soldier in what is believed to be a political assassination.

READ: Isabela town hall slays: 2 former soldiers held

The court still rendered the conviction of the mayor because of the absence of a death certificate.

The case stemmed from the ghost delivery of 21 units of refurbished Mitsubishi Delica vans using the Priority Development Assistance Funds of the late Isabela Representative Antonio Abaya.

Abaya’s representative, Robert Ngo, was also found guilty of three counts of falsification.

Also declared guilty were former Isabela State University President Miguel Ramos of one count of Reckless Imprudence resulting in Falsification of Public Document, and Director Venancio Santidad of the Department of Transportation and Communications of 21 counts.

During the trial, the Ombudsman prosecutors were able to prove that Abaya requested P7.72 million to purchase 21 multi-cabs in April 2002. The funds were made available through the Department of Transportation and Communications through Ngo who represented Abaya in the bidding.

The Commission on Audit, however, caught the ghost deliveries and said the alleged beneficiaries denied receiving any vehicle.

Despite the ghost deliveries, Raspado and Ramos signed the Invoice Receipt of Property (IRP) to prove that there was a turnover of vehicles.

Santidad meanwhile signed all of the 21 IRPs to certify that 21 vehicles were transferred to the fourth district of Isabela.

Not one of the vehicles were also registered the DOTC, Abaya or any of the officials involved.

The Ombudsman in a statement said the “sale was a farce.”

The Sandiganbayan junked Raspado’s defense that he committed the crime because of Ngo’s “glib of the tongue.”

“It escapes logic that such seasoned public officers could readily succumb to the prodding and glib tongue of accused Ngo,” the court said.

The court also said it “sees no semblance of good faith when they willingly subscribed to a patently false narration of facts.”

“(The) integrity of the [IRP] as a document was greatly compromised because of their intentionally placed signatures,” the court added.

Raspado was sentenced to two years, four months and one day as minimum, to eight years and one day as maximum imprisonment, with a fine of P5,000. Ngo, meanwhile, was sentenced to six months and one day as minimum to six years and one day as maximum, with a fine of P5,000.

Ramos was sentenced to a prison term of four months as minimum to two years, 10 months and 21 days as maximum.

Santidad was sentenced to a prison term of four months as minimum to two years, 10 months, and 21 days for each count.

Santidad was also ordered to pay P7.56 million as civil liability, while Raspado, Ngo and Ramos were ordered to pay P360,000 for each count.

Meanwhile, the case of Leoncio Kiat, ex-Mayor of Echague, Isabela was dismissed in view of his death in 2011. IDL