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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Wednesday, October 18, 2017
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BACOLOD City – The Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City filed a motion for reconsideration (MR) before the Court of Appeals (CA) in Cebu City regarding its Sept. 6 decision absolving Mayor Evelio “Bing” Leonardia and six others from their administrative cases.
The CA decision exonerated Leonardia and six other government employees from their grave misconduct and gross neglect of duty charges in relation to the purchase of furniture worth P50 million for the Bacolod City Government Center in 2008.
The Ombudsman prayed that the CA decision be reconsidered.
The Ombudsman said Leonardia and his co-petitioners’ appeal should have been dismissed, considering that they were “prematurely filed as they failed to exhaust an available administrative remedy.”
The CA also seriously erred in modifying the Ombudsman’s joint resolution and in interpreting the prospective application of the abandonement of the condonation doctrine, the MR stated.
For his part, Leonardia said, “As far as I know it is some kind of standard operating procedure on the part of the Ombudsman to file an MR.”
He added, “If you come to think of it, there were only two possibilities. It was either gin padaug kami or napyerde kami.”
Leonardia said whatever comes next, their lawyers are ready.
Last month, CA associate justices Germane Francisco Legaspi, Marilyn Lagura-Yap and executive justice Gabriel Ingles signed the decision completely clearing out the charges against Leonardia, Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) chairman Goldwyn Nifras, Budget Officer Luzviminda Treyes, BAC member Nelson Sedillo Sr., and BAC Technical Working Group members Jaries Encabo, Belly Aguillon and Aladino Agbones.
The CA decision stated that Leonardia and six others did not violate Republic Act 9184, or the Government Procurement Reform Act, since the public officials did not benefit from the transaction.
It also stated that the prices of the procured items were never claimed “unreasonable.”
On the other hand, the CA charged BAC secretariat Melvin Recabar and BAC Technical Working Group member Eduardo Ravena of simple misconduct.
Recabar and Ravena were suspended from work for three months without pay.
The CA based its decision on two consolidated petitions for review, one filed by Leonardia and another filed by his eight co-petitioners./PN
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