“DENIED.”
This was the decision of the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas on the motion for reconsideration filed by three officials of Barangay 35 in Bacolod City after the cases they lodged against their six colleagues including Captain Ruben James Miranda were dismissed by the agency.
The decision was penned by graft investigation and prosecution officer II Rogie Dela Cuesta-Fernandez, reviewed by Director Euphemia Bacalso of Preliminary Investigation, Administrative Adjudication and Prosecution Bureau, and recommended for approval by Assistant Visayas Ombudsman Carl Juris Tangco.
The order was released in March this year but was only received by the respondents on Wednesday, September 28.
Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Dante Vargas approved the denial of the motion.
Aside from Miranda, charged for criminal complaints of falsification of documents and malversation of funds were Kagawads Ruperto Legada, Roberto Dela Pena, Harold Cadapan, Joel Doria and Reynaldo Alejandrino, Jr. as well as Barangay Secretary Merlita Bernal.
Complaintants Kagawads Ronnie Albao, Arjie Yelo and Sangguniang Kabataan chairman Lyka Rose Gabuya also filed administrative complaints for abuse of authority against their colleagues.
On July 7, last year the Ombudsman dismissed the charges filed by the officials against their colleagues for “lack of substantial evidence.”
The complainants filed a motion for reconsideration reiterating that the minutes for the sessions on October 6, 2018, June 1 and July 6 2019 were all falsified by the respondents due to the disparity in contents compared to that of the copies furnished to them.
They said that Miranda should be held criminally liable for malversation claiming that it was only after the complaint they filed that a meeting and a gathering were organized to distribute the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (Tupad) funds and pictures were taken.
They also alleged that Miranda misused the funds for the construction of the bridge connecting Puroks Malipayon and Maghiliugyon valued at P50,000.
But the Ombudsman explained that a motion for reconsideration must be based on material and newly-discovered evidence, or grave errors of facts and laws or serious irregularities prejudicial to movant’s interest.
“The allegations in the complainant-movants’ motion are mere rehash of their previous arguments, which have already been duly assailed (in an earlier resolution),” the Ombudsman stressed.
For Miranda, they have already been expecting the dismissal of the complaints against them saying “those have no merits.”
“We consider those charges just politically motivated,” he told SunStar Bacolod.*