Thursday, July 17, 2008 Baquerfo seeks reconsideration
TUDELA, Cebu mayor Rogelio Baquerfo has asked the Sandiganbayan to reconsider his suspension over a criminal case on a waterworks project.
But Demetrio Granada, who filed the case against Baquerfo in 2004 and is claiming the Tudela mayoralty due to a judicial recount of the 2007 elections, said as he walked out of the courtroom yesterday: “Tomorrow, I’ll be mayor again.”
Granada had been away from Tudela since Monday, when he took the witness stand in the case against Baquerfo.
During his absence, he appointed Tudela vice mayor Clint Maratas to sit as acting mayor.
And now, Baquerfo is hot on Maratas’ heels. Baquerfo is set to file today before the office of the Ombudsman a complaint against Maratas for usurpation of authority, said his lawyer Noel D. Archival.
Sandigan order
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) can suspend Baquerfo and install Mara-tas as the acting mayor only when it receives a copy of the Sandiganbayan order.
The Sandiganbayan resolution suspended Ba-querfo under section 13 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act 3019), which says that a government official facing criminal prosecution for “fraud upon government or public funds or property” must be suspended.
Baquerfo’s turnover of Tudela municipality’s waterworks system to one of its barangays had caused Granada to file a criminal charge against him in 2004.
In the criminal information, Granada accused Baquerfo of turning over the management and operation control of the Tudela municipality’s waterworks system to Brgy. Puertobello, without authorization from the Tudela Sangguniang Bayan (SB).
This, according to Granada, violated section 3(e) of RA 3019, which holds criminally liable a public official who causes “undue injury to any party, including the Government,” or gives “unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference” to any party.
Already operating
It further stated that to be considered a criminal act under RA 3019, undue injury and unwarranted benefits must be inflicted with “manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence”.
In the motion for reconsideration that he filed before the anti-graft court yesterday afternoon, Ba-querfo argued that there was an absence of “manifest partiality” and “evident bad faith.”
He supported his argument by pointing out that the waterworks system in question had already been operating only within Brgy. Puertobello even before the turnover took place.
He argued that the turnover did not injure the government because the transfer only pertained to the management and operational control of the waterworks system, not
its ownership.
In his cross-examination of Tudela SB secretary Sosthenes Estrera last Tuesday, Archival asked him to present a deed of sale proving that there was a transfer of ownership. This was met, however, with objections by the prosecution.
Resolution
Yesterday, Archival continued his cross-examination of Estrera.
But Estrera only replied “I cannot answer” to Archival’s queries whether there was a resolution transferring the waterworks system.
When Associate Justice Roland Jurado asked Estrada why he was testifying if he did not know, Estrada answered that he was only on the witness stand to attest that, as Tudela SB secretary in 2004, no resolution passed through him authorizing the transfer of the waterworks system.
Estrada was the prosecution’s second and last witness.
Sandiganbayan Fifth Division Chairperson Ma. Cristina Cortez-Estrada and Associate Justices Napoleon Inoturan and Roland Jurado gave the prosecution 15 days to present their formal offer of evidence, despite Archival’s plea for only 5 days due to the suspension order. (KAB)
