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Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Mayor out on P24T bail
By Edmund Sestoso and Neil C. Rio
CANLAON City Mayor Judith Cardenas is out of jail on a P24,000 bail.
Cardenas posted bail on November 18 after Associate Justice Edilberto Sandoval of the 2nd Division of the Sandiganbayan ordered her arrest on charges of falsification of public and private documents.
She was able to pay the bail before Judge Mario Trinidad of Branch 64 of the Regional Trial Court in Guihulngan 15 minutes after Canlaon City police chief Bernardo Mangubat served the arrest order just before 5:00 in the afternoon of November 18.
The mayor could not be reached for comment.
The case stemmed from the complaint filed by Leah Acallar of Canlaon People's Rights Movement against Cardenas and two other City Hall employees before the Cebu City Prosecutor's Office and the Office of the Visayas Ombudsman in January 2003
The two other employees were City Treasurer Maria Luisa Luza and City Accountant Juliano Montero.
The complaint involved Cardenas' purchase of a gold Nissan Frontier 4X4, which costs more than P1.097 million on August 30, 2002 from the Nissan outlet in Bacolod City.
The purchased item was paid by a DBP check dated August 29, 2002 signed by Cardenas and Luza.
Acallar accused the three officials of falsification of documents and violating the prohibition on the purchase and use by a government office of a luxury vehicle.
A "luxury vehicle," is defined as any passenger motor vehicle worth at least P1.3 million.
Weeks after the purchase, the brand new vehicle was involved in a shooting incident that left three of the mayor's farm workers wounded.
Acallar said the purchase of the vehicle violated an administrative order and that their act was a display of abuse of authority and wastage of government funds.
She said Canlaon City has new vehicles including several under the Office of the Mayor.
Moreover, Acallar charged, the vehicle was overpriced because a similar vehicle sold at Nissan Cebu cost only P1,020,000 excluding the P50,000 promotional discount.
The suspension order was not carried out because of the 2004 election ban. Then came the Sandiganbayan order.
(December 4, 2005 issue)
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