Philippine consul to Saudi Arabia charged with graft

The Office of the Ombudsman on Friday filed graft charges against the Philippine consul general to Saudi Arabia for allegedly taking over illegally the management of an international school in the Middle East country. Charged with violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act) before the Sandiganbayan was Kadatuan Palot Usop, consul general of the Philippine consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The case was filed after Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas N. Gutierrez denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Usop seeking the reversal of the Ombudsman’s earlier decision finding probable cause to charge him before the anti-graft court. The case stemmed from the complaint filed by Edgardo Alcantara and Linogaranao Mapandi, members of the Board of Trustees of the International Philippine School in Jeddah (IPSJ), who both alleged that Usop illegally inducted a new set of officers for the school board without first holding an election and even if the three-year term of the incumbent board members had yet to expire. In their complaint, the two board officials said Usop even appointed himself as chairman of the board and installed his reported protegee Fidel Hernandez as vice chairman, even if the constitution and by-laws of the IPSJ clearly prohibited consulates from interfering with its operation and management. In his counter-affidavit, Usop said he was prompted to install a new set of IPSJ board officers after about 200 parents wrote a letter informing him of their decision to “dissolve the board of trustees" and “gave mandate to Mr. Fidel Hernandez, President of the Parents-Teachers Council, to form a new Board of Trustees." Usop maintained his decision was reached during the parents’ general assembly on October 11, 2002. He also claimed that the induction of new board members is within his jurisdiction as consul general, and in fact was supported and recognized by officials of the Philippine and Saudi Arabian governments. But the Ombudsman ruled that “all the pieces of documentary evidence on hand point to the conclusion that the members of the Hernandez Board were not elected in accordance with the IPSJ constitution and by-laws at the time they were inducted to office by the respondent on October 29, 2002." In a 25-page decision, Gutierrez pointed out that the student population of the IPSJ at the time of the controversy was more or less 1,200, while the number of parents who purportedly signed the October 26, 2002 letter is only 200 or one-sixth of the total student populace. The Ombudsman stressed that the said number does not constitute the majority of the total membership of the assembly, “thus its resolution to dissolve the incumbent board has no legal effect." The Ombudsman added that Usop has shown “manifest partiality, evident bad faith and/or gross inexcusable negligence" when he inducted the Hernandez Board despite the glaring irregularities in its constitution, causing a “whimsical defiance of established law, rules and regulations and the outbreak of hostilities in the school." -GMANews.TV