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[av_heading heading=’VICE MAYOR OF DINGLE SACKED
Dummy used to corner projects – Ombudsman ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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ILOILO City – The Office of the Ombudsman ordered the dismissal from service of Vice Mayor Rufino Palabrica III. It found him using a dummy in his construction company to bag construction projects of the municipal government.
The Ombudsman also perpetually disqualified Palabrica – former Dingle mayor who ran for vice mayor in the recent May elections – from re-employment in government.
The dismissal order dated Aug. 22, 2016 yet was served to the office of Palabrica just this Nov. 3, said Regional Director Anthony Nuyda of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
“This Office finds respondent…Palabrica III guilty of serious dishonesty and grave misconduct and is hereby meted the penalty of dismissal from the service including all its accessory penalties,” part of the Ombudsman order read.
The accessory penalties were the cancellation of Palabrica’s civil service eligibility and forfeiture of his retirement benefits.
The dismissal order was approved by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.
It was the Ombudsman’s Field Investigation Office that filed the complaint against Palabrica way back when the respondent was still the municipal mayor. It discovered that the official used a dummy for his and his wife Theresa’s Tri-B Marketing construction company.
On paper, it appeared that the owner of Tri-B Marketing was Eden Castañeda. The Ombudsman Field Office discovered her t be a helper of the Palabricas.
Tri-B Marketing bagged the following projects of the municipal government of Dingle:
* concreting, rip-rapping, widening and construction of drainage system on Espino Street and construction of drainage on Aportadera Street (Phase 1) worth P1.88 million (Dec. 27, 2007)
* concreting of a portion of Pototan-Dingle Road for P1.78 million (Sept. 1, 2008)
* construction of Home Technology Building of Rufino G. Palabrica Sr. National High School for P953,271.64 (March 30, 2009), and
* concreting of Camambugan-Caguyuman Barangay Road for P733,794 (Feb. 16, 2009).
DUMMY
The Ombudsman’s Field Investigation Office found out that prior to Theresa Palabrica’s Waiver of Rights over Tri-B Marketing, Castañeda did not file an annual income tax return (ITR) with the Bureau of Internal Revenue from taxable years 2000 to 2006.
It was only after the business was transferred to her that Castañeda started filing ITRs, according to the Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman also found out that as of Dec. 8, 2009, Castañeda did not have real properties registered under her name and that she belonged to an indigent family in Barangay Tambunao, San Enrique, Iloilo.
“With no concrete proof of her source of income, how can she secure millions of pesos as her capital to run the business with transactions involving millions of pesos,” the Ombudsman wondered.
It rejected Palabrica’s argument that Castañeda got financial assistance from friends, family and a lending institution.
It’s impossible to extend a P1.5-million loan or credit line with “no credit limit” for construction materials and a P1.2-million credit line for hollow blocks to someone who does not have a specific source of income and who does not have any property to secure her loan, according to the Ombudsman.
“The Office can only logically conclude is that she is a mere dummy of respondent’s wife and the latter has not actually divested her financial interest in Tri-B Marketing,” the Ombudsman said.
The Ombudsman further believed that Palabrica deliberately concealed the truth that he still had indirect financial interest over Tri-B Marketing.
The Local Government Code of 1991 and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees prohibit public officials from engaging in private business with the government, stressed the Ombudsman.
Although Palabrica can bring his case to the Court of Appeals or even the Supreme Court, DILG’s Nuyda said the Ombudsman’s decision is executory.
The rule on succession will be followed, said Nuyda. The No. 1 Sangguniang Bayan member of Dingle will become the vice mayor, he said.
Palabrica could not be reached for comment as of this writing./PN
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