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BY ADRIAN STEWART CO and GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Friday, June 16, 2017
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ILOILO – Former Tigbauan, Iloilo mayor Excelsior Torres and two other municipal officials face graft charges over the procurement of defective farm tractors.
In 2009 the local government of Tigbauan bought two Ford tractors worth P1,873,928.58.
According to the Ombudsman, the tractors had to be repaired to become serviceable.
Without testing the hydraulic spool valves, Torres, Municipal Agriculturist Eugenia Sayson and Market Supervisor George Tinguban accepted and facilitated the full payment for the tractors, said the Ombudsman.
For this, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales ordered the filing of charges at the Sandiganbayan against the three local executives for violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act).
Section 3 (e) of this law prohibits public officials from causing undue injury to any party, including the government, or giving any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of official administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence.
Torres could not be reached for comment as of this writing.
The Ombudsman also slapped Sayson and Tinguban with a two-month suspension for misconduct.
Incumbent Mayor Susette Terrefrancia-Alquisada told Panay News that Sayson and Tinguban were suspended effective April 17, 2017 yet.
The respondents “hastily certified the delivery of the tractors as complete and conforming to the quantity and specification, conveniently overlooking the deficiencies of the units,” according to the Ombudsman.
This, according to the anti-graft watchdog, was “gross inexcusable negligence.”
It dismissed the three official’s invocation of “good faith” in the exercise of their respective duties.
“The sole fact that the tractors were secondhand units, whose date of original acquisition was not disclosed in the sales invoice, (should have bee) reason enough for respondents to insist on adequate testing of all the component parts to determine their operability,” stressed the Ombudsman.
Local officials, it stressed, had the duty to “safeguard the government from being shortchanged.”/PN
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