Ex-Surigao town mayor, treasurer face graft over piggery

MANILA, Philippines -  The Office of the Ombudsman has filed criminal charges before the Sndiganbayan against a former mayor and municipal accountant of Cortes, Surigao del Sur for building a piggery building on a private land using public funds.

 

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales affirmed the findings of sufficient grounds to file graft charges against ex-mayor Pedro Trinidad Jr. and incumbent municipal accountant Leonidas Coniaberos.

 

The Ombudsman also affirmed the four month suspension against Coniaberos.

 

Investigation shows that an Extra Judicial Settlement of the Estate of Maria Maquiling with Deed of Donation was executed on Dec. 4, 2009 between the family of Trinidad and the Municipality of Cortes.  

 

Prior to the Deed’s execution, however, several disbursement vouchers were acted upon by the two accused showing that government funds amounting to P385,000 were released to pay for the construction materials intended for the piggery building.  

 

"The use of public funds in constructing the piggery building represents loss to the government because it was built on a private land and the family of Trinidad benefited to the extent of the cost of the building," a joint order said.

 

The deed of donation is a “defective contract” because it only extended to the municipality the usufructuary of the land and not the ownership, the resolution said.

 

“When Trinidad Jr. caused the disbursement of the funds of the municipality for this project in the land owned by him and siblings, he acted with evident bad faith, if not with gross inexcusable negligence and with manifest partiality” as “the construction of the piggery building was not purely beneficial to the Municipality since the Trinidad family could anytime take over the same,” it added.

 

The Ombudsman, however, dismissed the graft charge for the construction of the water reservoir as the Annual Investment Plan included in Appropriation Ordinance No. 6, specifically set aside the sum of P500,000 for the improvement and construction of an additional water reservoir.

 

The criminal charge against municipal treasurer Isidro Angos was dismissed for lack of probable cause, while the administrative charge against Trinidad Jr. was dismissed in view of his re-election as mayor in 2010.