Ex-Nueva Vizcaya municipal engineer convicted of doctoring road project report

A former municipal engineer of Alfonso Castañeda, Nueva Vizcaya has been convicted of graft and falsification by public officer charges over releasing P9 million worth of public funds to a contractor who failed to finish a road project and faking the project's progress report.

In a 33-page decision dated January 17, the anti-graft court said that ex-Municipal Engineer Romeo Beltran “willfully, unlawfully and criminally [caused, approved and released] to KAICO the full amount of the contract price of P10 million for the construction of the Batu-Abuyo Farm-to-Market Road (Road) in Barangay Lublub, Alfonso, Castaneda, Nueva Vizcaya” despite the fact that the contractor only accomplished 3.87% of the said project based on the inspection made by the Commission on Audit.

Given the situation, the anti-graft court said that Beltran’s actions resulted in damages to the government worth P9.6 million.

The anti-graft court noted that Beltran admitted that he was the one monitoring the  physical progress and development or physical accomplishment of the road, which is the subject of this case from start to finish, and that he affixed his signature on a document stating that the contractor for the project was accomplished 100%—a finding contrary to an Inspection Report conducted by the Commission on Audit which showed that the project was only 3.78% finished.

“As borne by the Audit Report submitted above, the Audit Team have only calculated a volume of 6,000 cubic meter of earthworks compared with the 50,000 cubic meter per Program of Works submitted. Due to this glaring disparity, a review of the Inspection Report was conducted and contrary to Project of Acceptance issued by the accused Beltran, the construction of the said road is far from being 100% complete,” the Sandiganbayan said.

The Sandiganbayan also invoked the testimony made by defense witness and then-Assistant Provincial Director Benjamin Acojido of Department of Interior and Local Government-Nueva Ecija who admitted that he was not aware that the project they inspected was supposedly finished in 2002 because they were not furnished any report saying such from the LGU (local government unit) concerned.

Likewise, Acojido conceded that their ocular inspection was merely to see and note the improvements made and could not say with certainty that the project was completed or that it was compliant with the specifications provided in any program of works.

“Accused Beltran has taken advantage of his position when he has the duty to make or create a truthful progress report had he truly inspected the said project. In sum, the Court finds that the evidence presented against accused Beltran in the twin cases has sufficiently overturned the Constitutional presumption of innocence accorded to him,” the Sandiganbayan said.

“His guilt for the offense of violating Sec. 3(e) of Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and falsification by public officer penalized under paragraph 4 of Article  171 of the Revised Penal Code have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” the Sandiganbayan added.

As a result, the Sandiganbayan meted Beltran a jail sentence spanning from six to eight years and perpetual disqualification from holding public office for graft and two to eight years long prison time for falsification by public officer raps. — BM, GMA News