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Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Ombud clears town mayor
The anti-graft office has dropped the charges filed against a town mayor for building a government road in a private lot two years ago, even if it noted that the official didn’t follow proper procedures in the project.
In a resolution released last Oct. 26, Graft Investigator Alvin Butch Cañares said there wasn’t enough reason to charge Conso-lacion, Cebu Mayor Avelino Gungob Sr. before the Regional Trial Court (RTC).
In a separate decision, Cañares found no basis to try the official administratively for misconduct, since the alleged violation happened in the mayor’s previous term.
“Without passing upon the merits of this case, the fact is that the act complained of occurred sometime in July 2003 or during his previous term,” Cañares said.
Supreme Court
Quoting the Supreme Court’s ruling in the 1992 Aguilando vs. Santos case, Cañares said: “The rule is that a public official cannot be removed for administrative misconduct committed during a previous term, since his reelection to office operates as a condonation of the officer’s previous misconduct to the extent of cutting off the right to remove him.”
Cresencia Herbieto, also of Consolacion, Cebu, filed the complaint against Gungob.
Owner
In her affidavit-complaint, she said she is the owner of two adjoining lots 5,700 square meters wide in Barangays Pulog and Dagongdong, Consolacion.
In July 2003, she noticed that a 10-meter-wide road was built traversing her property, she said.
She later learned it was Gungob who had the road built.
Gungob, upon orders of the anti-graft office, submitted a counter-affidavit.
The road, the mayor said, was part of the municipal government’s Farmer-Scientist Training Program launched in September of 2002.
Part of that program was the experimental planting of some high-yield varieties of cassava and the putting up of a cassava demonstration farm of about a hectare, he said.
Volunteered property
He volunteered his property in Barangay Pulog for the project. But construction couldn’t start because there was no road.
The mayor then asked eight owners of adjacent lots, including Herbieto’s husband, to donate part of their properties for a road.
The landowners agreed, Gungob said.
“From the evidence and the statements of the respondent, it appears that there was no malice on the part of the creation of the access road, albeit the proper procedure may not have been followed,” Cañares said.
“Apparently, the intention was noble but the manner of carrying out that noble idea did not sit well with one of the lot owners.
Violations of the anti-graft law require, as one of its essential elements, the fact of malice or gross inexcusable negligence to justify indictment. The evidence on this case is essentially inadequate to lead to a resolute conviction,” Cañares said. (KNR)
(November 2, 2005 issue)
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