QUICK LOOK
[] Ombudsman finds ‘probable cause’ in criminal charges, ‘substantial evidence’ in administrative charges.
[] Eight officials and employees ordered dismissed by Ombudsman. They include ex-city administrator Floro Casas Jr., DPS head John Jigo Gaston Dacua, city accountant Jerome Visarra Ornopia, city treasurer Mare Vae Fernandez Reyes, and environmental monitoring team leader Grace Luardo-Silva.
[] Eleven, including the five mentioned above, charged by Ombudsman before Sandiganbayan with malversation of public funds and corruption. Not plunder. Three private individuals from the construction company were among those indicted before the Sandiganbayan.
[] Mayor Nestor Archival has ways to guard against faulty weighing of garbage at dump site.
The total amount of public funds lost in Cebu City’s garbage scandal, delay in release of Ombudsman findings, why the charge is not plunder, and evidence gathered by NBI and preliminarily assessed by the Ombudsman -- reporting on the interesting sub-issues has not been totally clear. Sorting them out may help.
Here are some takeaways:
[1]‘P239.72M’ IS LOSS, NOT AMOUNT OF CONTRACT. The amount has been attached to the 2021 garbage scandal in news stories, especially in headlines or sub-headings.
It is not the amount of the contract with Docast Construction and General Supply/JJ&J Construction and General Supply. The joint venture agreement with the City didn’t specify the amount: just the cost, P1,800 per ton of garbage. And the period of the purchase orders, which tell the duration of the two firms’ work of “collection, transport and disposal”: P.O. #080 -- from January 29 to July 19, 2021. P.O. #570, from July 27 to Aug. 10, 2021.
The amount P239.72M is listed in both the criminal and administrative charges as “overpayment,” the difference between the total amount billed by, and presumably paid to, Docast-JJ&J (P367,141,446) and the total amount billed by and paid to ARN, the dumping site company (P111,431,280), P15.981 million tax included.
NBI Regional Director Rennan Augustus Oliva, at its December 15, 2022 press briefing, said the amount involved is P239,728,280.62 “through the modus of overbilling, padding, and ghost deliveries of garbage.”
[2] RESOLUTION, RULING IN FEBRUARY, MARCH YET. Ombudsman issued on February 4, 2025 the administrative ruling that ordered dismissal of eight Cebu City government personnel. On March 14, 2025, the Ombudsman issued the resolution on the criminal aspect.
Both rulings were publicized only on July 8, 2025 when the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)-Central Visayas announced the Ombudsman findings.
It was after all the NBI-Cevro that (a) investigated the suspected anomaly, on request of then vice mayor Michael “Mike” Rama through a City Council resolution, and (b) filed on December 14, 2022 the charges with the Ombudsman.
The NBI alleged the “conspiracy of eight Cebu City officials with a private construction company” (or more accurately, two companies operating on a project as one) “in a series of anomalous transactions” on the collection of the city’s garbage.
[3] ‘SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE,’ ‘PROBABLE CAUSE,’ JUST NO PLUNDER. The Ombudsman’s February 4 ruling found “substantial evidence” in the administrative charges and in fact ordered sanctions such as dismissals, forfeitures of benefits and the like. It found “gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.”
Its March 13 resolution of the criminal complaint found “probable cause” and decided to charge 11 respondents with (a) malversation of public funds and (b) violation of Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (section 3C).
The Ombudsman didn’t acquit anyone. It just picked the lesser charges, which are bailable, instead of plunder, which is not.
The Ombudsman found the amount involved way beyond the P50 million minimum under the Anti-Plunder Act but didn’t see the “pattern of plunder,” including a series of overt or criminal acts to amass wealth.
[4] HOW ALLEGED OVERPAYMENT OCCURRED. Under the JVA, the City Government would pay P1,800 per ton for garbage that Docast/JJ&J collected, transported and disposed.
Sub-contracting, Docast/J&J would pay ARN Central Waste Management Inc. P600 per ton of garbage dumped at its Barangay Binaliw dumping area.
As it turned out however, city government-owned trucks and barangay-owned vehicles also collected and ferried garbage to the dumpsite -- and billed Docast/JJ&J at the same rate, P600 per ton.
Docast/JJ&J allegedly reported the work of the City and barangay vehicles as its own, charging the full P1,800-per-ton fee. The result was that Docast/JJ&J claimed payment for service it didn’t render and the City paid the contractors for service that City Hall’s own equipment and paid personnel provided.
[5] PAPERS FALSIFIED AFTER BAN BY ARN, SAYS NBI. When on July 8, 2021 ARN banned Docast/JJ&J for alleged failure to pay, the contractors allegedly continued up to August 10, 2021 to bill the City, allegedly submitting falsified truck scale slips (TSS) from ARN.
“Through DPS,” the dumpsite firm allowed the city-owned and barangay-owned vehicles to deliver garbage directly to ARN’s site -- and “surprisingly” Docast/JJ&J still “managed to charge the City Government” from July 8 to August 10, 2021 “for alleged city garbage collected and hauled.”
And the documents used to collect payment? ARN-owned truck scale slips, which NBI said were found to falsified.
[6] MONEY TRAIL MAY NOT BE PROVED YET. But the falsified papers -- the truck scale slips -- must tell that it couldn’t have passed review without negligence or collusion of the inspectors and supervisors who were supposed to protect the interest of the City.
There was a composite team of inspectors, a source told me Thursday, July 31, comprising of employees from the office of the mayor, city treasurer’s office, and department of general services.
The team’s responsibility, my source said, was “to counter-check the billing invoice based on the trip summaries, not the trip summaries based on the TS slips issued by ARN.”
And could the people high up -- such as city accountant, city treasurer, DPS chief, and city administrator -- not have spotted or sensed the red flags signaling fraud? A question the NBI may have answered by including them in its list of persons it recommended for indictment.
[7] NEW ADMINISTRATION’S PLANS include the option for the City Government to open and manage its own dumpsite, as it did with lessons from the defunct Inayawan, Pardo landfill as guide to do things better. (The Supreme Court permanently closed the landfill on September 7, 2018.)
Meantime, Mayor Nestor Archival Sr. has specific ideas on how to get accurate reading of scales at the Binaliw dumpsite, such as seeing to it that the garbage is not drenched with rainwater or mixed with rocks when weighed.
If the P239.72 million garbage collection mess instructs anything, it’s not so much the padded weighing of garbage that causes the loss of public funds as the misguided persons entrusted with safeguarding the interest of the City Government.