Misuari indicted for graft over school materials

Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman Nur Misuari. AFP FILE PHOTO

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales has ordered the filing of graft and malversation charges against former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Nur Misuari over irregularities in the purchase of educational materials worth P137.5 million for 2000 and 2001.

Citing the findings of the Commission on Audit (COA), the indictment said Misuari approved the payment to five suppliers without undergoing public bidding, the Office of the Ombudsman said.

Other red flags cited were the use of undated and unnumbered procurement documents, absence of contracts and inventory lists, undue haste in the purchases, and the suppliers’ failure to comply with eligibility requirements.

“The Office finds probable cause that Misuari [and respondents] conspired with one another while discharging their official functions, [acting] with manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence when they conspired to rig the procurement,” Morales said in the statement.

Payments were made to the following suppliers:

– White Orchids Printing and Publishing House (P37.96 million for various educational materials);

– CPR Publishing House of Caloocan City (P46.26 million for 170 sets of multimedia information technology packages);

– Esteem Enterprises of Quezon City (P12.03 million for 33,000 copies of materials on village democracy, drug dependency and child values, and 8,500 maps of the Philippines);

– Dunong Publishing of Parañaque City (P22 million for 6,857 sets of Easy Learn Day Care Chart and 25,238 copies of Easy Learn Day Care Workbook), and;

– MBJ Learning Tools of Caloocan City (P19.26 million for 124 sets of IT packages).

Besides Misuari, the Ombudsman also approved the filing of three counts of malversation through falsification and three counts of graft against COA auditor Nader Macagaan and five former officials of the Department of Education’s

ARMM office.

These were: director Leovigilda Cinches, supply officer Sittie Aisa Usman, chief accountant Pangalian Maniri, accountant Alladin Usi, education program specialist Bai Sherilyn Mustapha.

Also facing trial were suppliers Lolita Sambeli of White Orchids, Cristeta Ramirez of CPR Publishing, Mario Barria of Esteem Enterprises and Ma. Lourdes Mendoza of Dunong Publishing.

Misuari is the founder and leader of the Moro National Liberal Front. He has a standing warrant of arrest for rebellion charges in relation to the two-week Zamboanga City siege in September 2013 that led to hundreds of deaths, displaced some 100,000 residents, and left large parts of the city in ruins.