Ex-mayor, treasurer get jail term for graft, public fund misuse

By: Gerome Dalipe

TWO former officials of Tigbauan, Iloilo are facing a jail term of up to 12 years for misappropriating about P250,000 in public funds in 2002.

The Sandiganbayan found former mayor Myrna Torres and Manuel Tabalada Jr., the former municipal treasurer, guilty of malversation of public funds and the anti-graft law.

“In the case at bar, the undue injury caused to the government is manifest from the fact that the Municipality of Tigbauan was not able to benefit from the P250,000 financial assistance intended for their socio-economic projects,” read the Sandiganbayan’s decision.

The case stemmed from the complaints filed by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, which indicted Torres, Tabalada, and Joji Santillana, former rural health nurse.

They were charged with violation of Sec. 3, paragraph (e) of Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and malversation of public funds, defined and penalized in Article 217 of the Revised Penal Code.

State auditors discovered the fund misuse when they audited the municipality’s spending of P250,000 financial assistance sourced from the Presidential Social Fund in 2002.

The above fund is the financial assistance given by the Office of the President to various municipalities for the implementation of their socio-civic projects.

An investigation by state auditors showed that the check dated Nov. 16, 2002, amounting to P250,000 to the municipality was received by Torres.

The mayor then instructed Santillana, then nurse from the Municipal Health Office of Tigbauan, to turn over the check to Tabalada for encashment.

Santillana then released the P250,000 to Torres.

But the treasurer did not issue an official receipt because the cash he released was actually taken from his collection, the auditors discovered.

But Torres, in her testimony, denied misusing the fund. After she received the check, the former mayor said she had it deposited to the town’s bank account.

She insisted that she did not personally handle the proceeds of the check after it was cashed. Rather, Torres said the proceeds were received by the municipality.

Torres pointed out that the liquidation reports were prepared by certain Lea Alvariño, the late clerk of the municipality.

Torres said she did not benefit from the fund since such was used for the benefits of her constituents.

In the decision, the anti-graft court said Torres and Tabalada “ineluctably acted in evident bad faith when they did not follow the usual manner of remittance of the money to the local treasury.”

“Tabalada’s giving of the cash equivalent of the check from his collection, pursuant to the conveyed instruction of Torres, can only be seen as a conscious doing of a wrong,” read the Sandiganbayan’s ruling.

The anti-graft court sentenced Torres and Tabalada from six to eight years in jail for of Sec. 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Likewise, the Sandiganbayan ordered them jailed from two to four years after they were found guilty of Art. 217 of the Revised Penal Code (malversation of public funds).

The anti-graft court also forfeited all their retirement benefits and barred them from working again in government.

On the other hand, the Sandiganbayan dismissed the charges against Santillana for want of evidence.