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[av_heading heading=’CA saves sacked Dingle vice mayor’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’18’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY IME SORNITO
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Friday, March 9, 2018
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ILOILO – Vice Mayor Rufino Palabrica III whom the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed from the service for serious dishonesty and grave misconduct in 2016 is returning to his post.
The Court of Appeals (CA) granted Palabrica’s appeal to overturn the Ombudsman decision.
On Aug. 22, 2016 the Ombudsman found Palabrica guilty of using a dummy in a construction company to bag construction projects of the municipal government of Dingle.
“I’m happy and grateful,” Palabrica told Panay News yesterday.
The appellate court issued its decision on Feb. 28, 2018.
According to Palabrica, he would wait for the reinstatement order from the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
THE OMBUDSMAN ORDER
It was the Ombudsman’s Field Investigation Office that filed the administrative complaint against Palabrica way back when the respondent was still the municipal mayor (2007 to 2010).
It claimed Palabrica used a dummy for his and his wife Theresa’s Tri-B Marketing construction company between 2007 and 2009.
On paper, it appeared that the owner of Tri-B Marketing was Eden Castañeda but according to the Ombudsman Field Office, she was a household helper of the Palabricas.
Tri-B Marketing bagged the following projects of the municipal government of Dingle between 2007 and 2009 when Palabrica was mayor:
* 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 was 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.
PALABRICA’S APPEAL
Palabrica argued at the CA that the Aguinaldo condonation doctrine should apply in his administrative case.
Under this doctrine, an elected official should not be removed from office for acts done prior to his present term because to do otherwise would deprive the people of their right to elect their officers; when a people have elected a man to office, it must be assumed that they did this with knowledge of his life and character, and that they disregarded or forgave his fault or misconduct, if he had any.
According to Palabrica, the acts which the Ombudsman held him to account were way back when he was the Dingle mayor yet (2007 to 2010) and he was reelected to two more terms (2010-2013 and 2013-2016).
When he was ordered dismissed from service, Palabrica was already vice mayor (elected on May 2016).
The Ombudsman said it did not apply the Aguinaldo condonation doctrine to Palabrica’s case because this legal principle was abandoned already in 2015.
In favoring Palabrica, the CA ruled: “Here, petitioner mainly contends that the abandonment of the condonation doctrine must be applied prospectively. Since his alleged infractions were committed from 2007 to 2009, that is, prior to the abandonment of the doctrine in 2015, his re-elections in 2010 and 2013 as mayor have effectively condoned any administrative offense which he may have committed during his previous term. We agree with petitioner.”/PN
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