Sandiganbayan urged to suspend Samar gov, 4 other officials

MANILA, Philippines - Government prosecutors on Friday asked the Sandiganbayan to place Samar provincial governor Milagrosa Tee Tan and four other high-ranking provincial officials under preventive suspension, saying with the arraignment over there is now no doubt on the validity of the graft charges filed against them. Tan, along with administrative officer Rolando B. Montejo, treasurer Damiano Z. Conde, accountant Romeo C. Reales, budget officer Maximo D. Sison and property inspection officer Numeriano C. Legaspi, have been charged with eight counts of graft in connection with the alleged anomalous purchases of P16.1 million worth of supposed ‘emergency supplies’ without any public bidding Office of the Special Prosecutor-Bureau IV director Cornelio L. Somido and assistant special prosecutor Jacinto M. dela Cruz Jr pointed out that it is mandatory that a public officer be suspended if s/he is indicted for offenses defined and penalized under Section 13 of RA 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. The prosecutors also noted a Supreme Court ruling (Libanan vs. Sandiganbayan) that states, ‘Once the information is found to be sufficient in form and substance, the court is bound to issue an order of suspension as a matter of course, and there seems to be ‘no ifs and buts about it’." “With the foregoing, their suspension pending litigation from any public office that they may be holding is mandatory pursuant to law and jurisprudence," the prosecutors said. The cases against them were filed at the Sandiganbayan in 2004 based on a complaint of Fr. Noel Labendia, parish priest of the Diocese of Calbayog and founding leader of Isog Han Samar Movement, an anti-corruption group in the province. Labendia accused the officials of purchasing supposed ‘emergency supplies’ worth P16.1 million without any public bidding. The items included rice, medical items and electric fans earmarked for victims of typhoon ‘Kidang,’ which hit portions of the province on December 4 and 5, 2001. Some of the purchases, however, were found to have been based on requests by municipalities dated even before the typhoon struck, including one which was dated two months before the calamity. In addition, delivery of hundreds of sacks of rice were contracted to Wilmart’s Mini Mart, which was not a registered grain supplier and had a capitalization of just P100,000. Also, prosecutors found that Wilmart was located 107 kilometers from Samar, which makes delivery of several hundreds of sacks of rice in just one day ‘improbable.’ - GMANews.TV