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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Saturday, January 7, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Mayor Evelio Leonardia needs more time to answer the charges filed against him at the Office of the Ombudsman – Visayas in Cebu City.
The criminal and administrative cases were filed in 2008 yet — during the mayor’s previous term — so Leonardia needs to dig up evidence proving his innocence, City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan said.
Armando Colado and Christopher Villeta accused Leonardia and seven others of malversation of public funds worth P858,872.59.
They alleged there were irregularities in the city government’s purchase of gasoline, oil and lubricant in 2006 and 2007.
Upon finding “enough bases to proceed with the preliminary investigation and administrative adjudication proceedings,” the Ombudsman, in an order dated Nov. 11, 2016, ordered the respondents to file counter-affidavits “strictly within 10 days” after receiving the order.
Bayatan said they will ask for an extension of the deadline.
He is confident the Ombudsman will grant their request. “This thing did not happen yesterday, it happened almost 10 years ago,” and with the amount of records needed, it is “humanly impossible” to come up with an answer in 10 days, he said.
A lawyer and a paralegal at the City Legal Office were instructed to collate “all” related records, especially since “there were some departments involved,” said Bayatan.
Aside from Leonardia, charged with violating Article 217 of the Revised Penal Code and Section 3(e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act were Executive Assistant Eduardo Ravena (then city accountant); City Engineer Belly Aguillon; Senior Superintendent Ronilo Quebrar (then Bacolod City Police Office director); Ricardo Dahildahil (then officer-in-charge of Management and Audit Services Office); Teresita Guadalupe (then officer-in charge of the Office of the Building Official); Francis Albert Torres, proprietor of FAT Petron; and Roberto Lizares, chairman of the board, Amber Corp.
Leonardia, Ravena and Aguillon were also charged with misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.
Based on Commission on Audit (COA) reports covering the years 2006 and 2007, the local government’s fuel purchases were “not supported with basic requirements and documents, such as delivery receipts, trip tickets and monthly fuel consumption reports,” said the Ombudsman.
Bayatan stressed that Leonardia had a clean record. The issue is an “old” one, and Leonardia already explained the matter to the COA before he left the mayorship in 2013 to become congressman, he said./PN
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