Ex-Palawan mayor meted 10-year jail term for graft

MANILA, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan has sentenced a former mayor of San Vicente town in Palawan to a 10-year jail term after finding him guilty of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

In an 18-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo, the anti-graft court also ordered former mayor Alejandro Villapando to pay a fine of P247,500 and perpetually disqualified him from holding public office.

The Office of the Ombudsman announced the verdict Wednesday, saying it secured Villapando’s conviction after proving that he unlawfully paid for 1,500 bags of cement for a project that never existed.

The case against Villapando’s co-accused, former municipal treasurer Rodrigo Cipriano Sr., was provisionally dismissed pending submission of his death certificate issued by the National Statistics Office.

Records show that in January 2000, Villapando and Cipriano approved and released a check amounting to P247,500 to Apollo Trading for the purchase of 1,500 bags of cement supposedly to be used for the concreting of the Toursite Panindigan Road in San Vicente town.

Documents show that the two both signed the undated certificates of purchase and acceptance for the bags of cement.

In a special audit, the Commission on Audit, however, found there was no such delivery of cement and the road project for which this was intended neither existed nor accomplished.

The anti-graft court noted that even the records of the town’s General Service Division did not show the supplies and certifications made by accountable municipal employees, and that barangay officials revealed that the road for which the cement was meant remained unpaved.