Thursday, September 25, 2008 City engineer convicted By Karlon N. Rama Sun.Star Staff Reporter
FOR giving “unwarranted benefits to the City of Cebu,” the anti-graft court yesterday sentenced a government engineer to spend six years and a month in jail.
The Sandiganbayan found Antonio Sanchez guilty of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices by building a canal in a titled lot 10 years ago, without paying the owner through expropriation.
“The Sandiganbayan did not give any importance to vital documents,” Sanchez said when interviewed last night, referring to a Cebu City Council resolution that authorized the construction.
“All they considered was that I implemented the project,” he said.
Sanchez also said no government money was lost because of what happened. “How can that be graft? This is very, very unfair. I was just doing my job,” he said.
Sanchez is currently the city engineer of Mandaue. He held that same post in Cebu City during the term of former Cebu City mayor Alvin Garcia.
Garcia and the Cebu City Council had authorized the construction of the drainage facility sometime in 1998.
Apparently, it was not known then that the land they were building on, located in Barangay Cogon-Pardo, belonged to Lucia Nadela.
Lawyer Edgardo Labella, who was Sanchez’s counsel until he returned as a member of the Cebu City Council in 2004, was surprised by the ruling and suggested that Sanchez immediately file an appeal.
“For me, he shouldn’t have been charged at all,” Labella said when sought for comment last night.
The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas filed the charge against Sanchez in May 2000.
Graft Investigator Teresita Alivio, now no longer in office, indicted Sanchez together with Garcia in a resolution signed by then ombudsman director Virginia Santiago, now assistant ombudsman-Visayas, and acting deputy ombudsman Nicanor Cruz.
The resolution stated that the mayor committed gross negligence when he authorized the construction of a canal on a private lot without expropriation proceedings.
But the Office of the Ombudsman Legal Counsel, based in Manila, dropped the then incumbent mayor from the charge and proceeded to indict Sanchez alone.
Garcia, according to the a memorandum signed by legal counsel Maria Laarni Parayno, could not be faulted because he had the right to rely on the report of the engineer who was duty-bound to check if the project would violate any ownership rights.
Sanchez, at the time of the investigation, said the land appeared to be a swamp or part of the seashore because of the nipa growing in the area.
He admitted that because of this no expropriation case was filed. Nor was any compensation made.
The anti-graft office, in the modified resolution, noted that Sanchez’s “failure to verify or investigate beyond the physical appearance of the property” is a case of negligence, which caused undue injury and damage to Nadela.
Sanchez was still in Manila when interviewed and said he and his lawyer intend to file an appeal immediately.
Fortunately, he will remain out on bail until the issue is resolved because the Sandiganbayan didn’t withdraw the bail he posted at the start of the hearings.
“I was very surprised. I expected to be acquitted,” he said.
Labella, for his part, said the authorization from the city council, then mayor Garcia and the barangay officials of Cogon-Pardo should have been sufficient to show lack of criminal intent.
“He was acting on a resolution and given authorization. And the persons who gave that order, the mayor, the council and the barangay, were all exonerated,” Labella said.
He explained though that Sanchez may still seek reconsideration of the ruling and, failing that, raise the matter on review before the Supreme Court.
