4 Palace execs face graft cases

MANILA, Philippines – An advocacy group has filed graft charges against four senior Malacañang officials under the Office of the Cabinet Secretary (OCS).

The Anti-Trapo Movement of the Philippines Inc. (ATM) filed three separate complaints against OCS executive director Gloria Jumamil-Mercado; executive assistant Aaron James Veloso; performance and project management office director Lt. Colonel Ranulfo Sevilla and assistant Cabinet secretary and chief of staff Isabelita Moncano-Somozo.

The ATM, led by Leon Peralta, filed charges of graft against the officials on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 before the Office of the Ombudsman.

In its first complaint, the group charged Mercado with falsification of public documents and usurpation of authority or official functions.

The complaint stemmed from Mercado’s alleged unauthorized foreign trips supposedly under the guise of official business.

The group said most of the trips were declared as “security-related” official matters “when such is not even within the scope of her office’s function and business.”

In the second complaint, the ATM accused Veloso of graft and usurpation of authority or official functions when he appointed himself as the acting Cabinet secretary from Sept. 28 to Sept. 30 last year when Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. was on an official trip to Vietnam.

In the same complaint, the ATM charged Sevilla, an active Army officer, with abandonment of duty under Article 236 of the Revised Penal Code and violation of an executive order on detail and assignment of military personnel to civilian offices.

In its third complaint, the ATM charged Veloso and Somozo with graft, saying Somozo issued a travel authority to Veloso for a certain trip at the expense of the government even when the trip was not connected with the functions of the Office of the Cabinet Secretary.