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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA and ADRIAN STEWART CO
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Tuesday. September 19, 2017
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ILOILO City – In September 2015 estranged political allies Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog and Councilor Plaridel Nava accused each other of corruption before the Office of the Ombudsman over the city government’s towing services deal with a private company. Two years after, the Ombudsman decided to hold both of them accountable.
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales yesterday found probable cause to charge both Mabilog and Nava of one count of violation of Section 3(h) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act 3019) over a deal entered into with 3L Towing Services.
Section 3(h) prohibits public officials “from directly or indirectly having financing or pecuniary interest in any business, contract or transaction in connection with which he intervenes or takes part in his official capacity, or in which he is prohibited by the Constitution or by any law from having any interest.”
In separate complaints lodged with the Ombudsman two years ago, both Mabilog and Nava accused each other of having business interest in 3L Towing Services.
In a Resolution, Carpio-Morales stated that while Mabilog and Nava pointed to each other as the true owner of 3L and thus have financial or pecuniary interest in the memorandum of agreement (MOA) of the Iloilo City government for towing and clamping, “one thing is clear from their accusations and counter-accusations — both colluded to create 3L, to get (Leny) Garcia to act as its dummy owner, to have the business registered with the Department of Trade and Industry and Bureau of Internal Revenue, to secure its business and mayor’s permits, and to have it awarded the MOA with the city government without going through a competitive process.”
On the part of Nava as revealed by Mabilog, according to the Ombudsman, the former’s intervention was made manifest when he sponsored the wheel clamping ordinance as a supplement to the towing ordinance.
“Nava also sponsored amendments to the towing ordinance allowing a private party to enter into a MOA with the city government for a term of five years without mentioning as to how the entity should be chosen. As admitted by Nava himself, it was done so with 3L in mind,” the Ombudsman Resolution added.
Simply put, according to Carpio-Morales, “there was a meeting of the minds between them to do an illegal act and thus they must both suffer its consequences.”
Nava’s allegation against Mabilog submitted to the Ombudsman was actually a supplemental affidavit to the graft complaint filed in April 2015 by former Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada against the mayor over the 3L contract. Mejorada claimed the contract was awarded without conducting a public bidding.
TOWING ORDINANCE
On April 8, 2014, the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) approved a regulation ordinance incorporating the use of a wheel towing clamp as part of its towing ordinance to curb incidences of illegal parking of vehicles. The goal was to reduce traffic congestion by removing obstructions from city streets.
On Feb. 17, 2015 the SP approved a resolution authorizing Mabilog to sign a MOA between the city government and 3L Towing Services for the implementation of the city’s clamping ordinance.
Under the agreement, 70 percent of the fines collected would be given to the towing company while the remaining 30 percent would be the city government’s share.
Two weeks later, or on Feb. 27, 2015 Mabilog wrote an urgent letter to the SP informing the body of the suspension of the MOA due to “some technical issues.”
On May 19, 2015, 3L proprietor Leny Garcia wrote Mabilog and offered to withdraw from the MOA “amidst the legal issues confronting it and submit to legal processes prescribed by laws on government bidding and procurement.”
Nava, then the chairman of the SP committee on transportation, accused Mabilog of actually owning 3L and claimed that the mayor had a direct financial interest in the MOA.
In his complaint filed against the city mayor, Nava claimed Mabilog employed his services “to perpetuate and consummate his illegitimate, immoral, dishonest and underground acts and transactions with private groups and corporate personalities doing or intending to do business in the city of Iloilo by using his power and influence as the chief executive of the city government.”
Nava claimed Mabilog instructed him to look for someone they could trust to stand as dummy owner and to estimate the cost and expenditures for the proposed business venture on clamping services.
The councilor claimed to be regularly reporting to Mabilog about the status of the business venture and that on June 16, 2014, Mabilog handed him P500,000 in cash as part of his capital contribution to the business.
Nava further claimed that Mabilog expedited the release of the business and mayor’s permits of the towing company.
In his counter-charge, Mabilog claimed it was Nava who had pecuniary interest in 3L “because it was the latter who told him about it and its intention of bidding for the towing project, even defending the qualifications of 3L.”
NAVA UNFAZED
Nava told Panay News yesterday he has yet to receive the Ombudsman resolution but said he had long expected the outcome because of his “strong and credible” testimony.
“I was included because I admitted my participation in the passage of the clamping ordinance,” he added.
But Nava, a lawyer, said aside from his testimony, no other evidence could be produced against Mabilog.
“What if I am no longer interested to testify against him? What if Mayor Mabilog is also no longer interested to testify against me? Ultimately, the case will be dismissed for lack of evidence,” said Nava.
Conspiracy, he said, is hard to prove especially in the absence of the testimony of one of the conspirators.
Mabilog is currently out of the country on sick leave. His spokesperson, Atty. Mark Piad, said they have yet to get hold of the Ombudsman resolution.
“We will wait for the written Resolution so that the mayor’s lawyers could file the proper legal remedies,” said Piad./PN
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