Town mayor cleared, then charged with graft anew

Days after he won acquittal from the Sandiganbayan, former Baganga (Davao Oriental) Mayor Gerry Morales faces a trial anew on fresh graft charges.

Antigraft prosecutors on Oct. 3 charged Morales with five counts of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and two counts of malversation in violation of the Revised Penal Code for five instances of procurement irregularities in 2003 and 2004.

On Sept. 29, the Sandiganbayan First Division acquitted Morales and former Vice Mayor Cecilio Monday of graft in the purchase of construction materials from a relative of the latter.

The new charge sheets state that Morales had foregone public biddings when he entered into contracts worth P231,072, P78,600 and P112,559 with Eduardo Hernaez Jr. of KPH Car Clinic, Johnny Roque of JB Roque Construction & Supply and Donald Villademosa of Villtrade Marketing, respectively. The deals were for vehicular repairs, payloader tires and a vehicle engine.

Likewise, Morales was accused of conspiring with Villademosa to defraud the government of P38,056.61 and P19,488 by making it appear in the disbursement voucher that these amounts were used to buy vehicle spare parts and payloader tires.

Prosecutors said these “ghost” purchases did not actually materialize. For the alleged misappropriations, Morales and Villademosa also face malversation charges.

The Ombudsman’s Office of the Special Prosecutor recommended bail of P390,000 for Morales for these charges.

The First Division’s Sept. 29 decision held that the prosecution failed to prove that Morales and Monday acted in bad faith when they skipped the public biddings in 2004.

The decision, penned by Associate Justice Efren de la Cruz, gave weight to the officials’ defense that they thought they could resort to “shopping” (procurement in cases of unforeseen contingencies by seeking price quotations) instead since the P33,550 cost fell below the P250, 000 threshold.

The court noted that it was only years later in 2009 that the Government Procurement Reform Act’s revised implementing rules and regulations clarified that construction materials are not included under the shopping rules.

The new charges were the latest in a string of court cases against Morales, who won a seat in the municipal council in last May’s elections.

Morales had been convicted twice in November 2014 and April 2016, and acquitted in separate cases on June 2010 and January 2013. According to court records, he still faces four other cases for graft and two for malversation.