Ex-Nueva Vizcaya engineer gets 16 years over road project

MANILA, Philippines — A former municipal engineer of Alfonso Castañeda town in Nueva Vizcaya has been sentenced to up to 16 years in prison in connection with a farm-to-market road.

In a 33-page decision promulgated on Jan. 17, the Sandiganbayan’s Second Division said Romeo Beltran was found guilty of violating Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and falsification of public documents under Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code.

Beltran was sentenced to six to eight years in prison for graft and two to eight years for the falsification offense. He was also perpetually disqualified from holding public office.

Danilo Sarmiento, lawyer of construction firm KAICO 25 Realty and Development Corp., was acquitted after the prosecution failed to prove his participation in the charged crimes.

The charges against the principal accused, former mayor Alfredo Castillo Jr., who remains at large, were archived.

Filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2011, the cases stemmed from the release of P10 million to KAICO in 2002 for the construction of  a farm-to-market road in Barangay Lublub.

The ombudsman said Castillo approved the release of the amount even though the road was only 3.87 percent complete at the time. The accomplished work amounted to only P378,000, it said.

The release of the full amount caused “undue injury” to the government in the amount of P9.622 million, the court said.

The second division said Castillo and Beltran falsified a project acceptance report certified that the project was 100 percent complete.

The court found no weight in Beltran’s defense that he had no participation in the processing and release of payment to KAICO even though he prepared the progress billing and accomplishment reports.

Undated disbursement vouchers showed Beltran’s name and signature, the court said.

The decision was penned by Associate Justice Lorifel Pahimna and concurred by Associate Justices Oscar Herrera Jr. and Michael Frederick Musngi.