Ex-Pasig mayor sued over P25-million donation to Camarines Sur town

MANILA, Philippines — Former Pasig City mayor Robert Eusebio is facing a criminal complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman for donating P25 million to a Camarines Sur town, supposedly for his wife’s failed congressional bid last May.

Members of the group Tambuli ng Mamamayan ng Pasig Inc., who filed the complaint yesterday, said Eusebio, his wife Maribel Andaya-Eusebio and other former city officials must be held liable for violating Republic Act 3019, the anti-graft law, and RA 6713, the code of conduct for public officials and employees.

The group alleged that the donation given to Pamplona, Camarines Sur – a sister city of Pasig – was to advance Maribel’s bid to represent Camarines Sur’s District 2 in the midterm elections last May.

Aside from the Eusebios, the complaint also named former Pasig councilors Rodrigo Asilo, Gregorio Rupisan Jr., Rhichie Gerard Brown, Orlando Benito, Regino Balderama, Rosalio Martires, Ferdinand Avis, Wilfredo Sityar and Iyo Christian Bernardo and Reynaldo San Buenaventura III, who passed the sisterhood city resolution in May 2018.

Also named as a respondent was former Pamplonamayor Augustus Caesar Cruz III.

The resolution guaranteed a total of P125 million in grants over five years to Pamplona, but the complainants said there was no counterpart resolution on the part of the municipal council.

The complainants also said the city council failed to conduct a hearing and pass an appropriate ordinance and there was “no clear reason” for Pasig officials to choose Pamplona for a sisterhood arrangement.

Eusebio signed a P25-million check and his wife, despite not being a city official at the time, turned it over to the Pamplona municipal government in August 2018.

The Commission on Elections canceled Maribel’s certificate of candidacy since she is not a registered voter in the province.