ACTING Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro ordered the filing of criminal charges against the mayor of Sara, Iloilo, and seven other municipal officials before the Sandiganbayan.

Mayor Neptali Salcedo, municipal treasurer Edna Pacrim, and municipal engineer Roel Salcedo were charged with 30 counts of malversation of public funds through falsification of public documents.

The case stemmed from a complaint filed by Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. before the Ombudsman-Visayas, alleging that labor payrolls amounting to a total of P1,834,400 were deemed to be of doubtful validity.

Investigations revealed that “evident similarity in some of the signatures on the affidavits of the supposed payees.” It said the signature above the names of different persons appear to have been “affixed by one person.”

Besides the filing of criminal charges, Pacrim and Roel Salcedo were also ordered dismissed with all inherent penalties.

In another case, Casimiro ordered that Mayor Salcedo; Pacrim; Roel Salcedo; Gregorio Golingay, municipal budget officer; Calixto Oliveros, municipal planning and development coordinator and bids and awards committee (BAC) chairman; Marcelino Abellar, municipal general services; Marilou Balasabas, executive assistant III and BAC member; and Elizabeth Tan, statistical aide and BAC secretariat head be charged for violation of Republic Act (RA) 3019, or the Antigraft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Tupas’s complaint was based on an audit finding that contracts and/or purchase orders totaling P1,249,050 were awarded by the BAC to Porquez Farm and General Merchant.

However, it was found out that the company was not a bona fide supplier.

The Ombudsman resolution said, “It was irregular for the BAC to award contracts to Porquez Farm and General Merchant when the latter could not be considered a bona fide supplier. Moreover, the corresponding disbursement vouchers for the payments made to Porquez Farm and General Merchant were not supported by the required documents, and the vouchers lacked several of the required signatures.”

The Ombudsman also found Oliveros, Pacrim, Roel Salcedo, Golingay, Abellar, Balasabas and Tan guilty of inefficiency and incompetence in the performance of official duties, and were each meted the penalty of nine-month suspension without pay and benefits.

In a separate resolution, Casimiro ordered the filing of criminal charges for two counts each of violation of RA 3019 against the mayor, Pacrim and Roel Salcedo.

The case stemmed from a complaint also filed by Tupas, which alleged that in May 2006, Mayor Salcedo, Pacrim and Roel Salcedo connived with each other when they caused the payment of the amount of P200,000 for the construction of a farm-to-market road, and also the amount of P100,000 for the construction of another farm-to-market road from sitio Kapinayan, Domingo, to sitio Sincua, Lemery, Sara, Iloilo.

The complainant said the project merely entailed repair works of an existing road and not construction of a new one.

It was revealed that for the road from Kapinayan, Domingo, to Sincua, Lemery, the Sara government paid an overpriced amount of P48,256 because repair works for the same was valued to be only P51,744.

The Commission on Audit (COA) said the local government of Sara also paid an excess amount of P96,512 for the Domingo-to-Muyco project because it was valued to be only P103,488.

The Office of the Ombudsman also found Pacrim and Roel Salcedo guilty of inefficiency and incompetence in the performance of official duties and were ordered suspended for nine months without pay and benefits for the ghost road project.

In a separate case, Mayor Salcedo, Pacrim, Roel Salcedo, accountant Edgar Beatingo and private individuals Luis Ybiernas were ordered charged for one count each for violation of the antigraft law.

Tupas alleged that the respondents caused the payment of P1 million to Sara Caltex Station in Sara, Iloilo, for fuel and lubricant used in several road repairs and expansions.

However, the COA discovered that there was an excess payment of P153,721 because the actual cost of the fuel was only P846,279 for the ten projects.

Pacrim, Roel Salcedo and Beatingo were also slapped with a separate nine-month suspension without pay and benefits for the overpriced fuel.