PAMPANGA, Philippines – The Courtroom of Appeals (CA) has upheld the dismissal of Teddy Tumang, the previous mayor of Mexico, Pampanga, and three different officers on account of alleged irregularities within the procurement of building supplies from a single provider through the mayor’s time period from 2007 to 2010.
The CA eighth Division, in its 32-page choice, denied the movement for reconsideration (MR) filed by Tumang, former municipal engineer and bids and awards committee vice chairman Jesus Punzalan, former administrative officer Luz Bondoc, and former municipal accountant Perlita Lagman. They had been earlier discovered answerable for grave misconduct.
The CA additionally upheld the penalty towards Tumang, Punzalan, Bondoc, and Lagman, which incorporates everlasting disqualification from holding public workplace, cancellation of eligibility, forfeiture of retirement advantages, and a ban on taking civil service examinations.
Rappler has reached out to Tumang however has but to obtain a response as of writing.
The Workplace of the Ombudsman ordered Tumang’s dismissal in August 2023 and accepted the submitting of prison circumstances towards him and several other others. The Ombudsman discovered that the municipality of Mexico violated Republic Act No. 9184 or the Authorities Procurement Reform Act. In its choice, the CA cited the failure to conduct a public bidding for the bottom course supplies, as a substitute choosing purchasing instead technique.
Primarily based on the criticism towards the officers, the funds for the bought supplies had been launched via 4 disbursement vouchers and 4 checks amounting to P772,447.60. The funds had been accepted and signed by Tumang even with out the required signature and certification from the municipal accountant.
“All these transactions had been awarded and paid to Buyu regardless of its questionable capability as a provider as established by the fraud auditors of the Fee on Audit,” the criticism learn.
The criticism additionally alleged that no base coarse and different building supplies had been delivered nor given by the municipality of Mexico to its six barangays: Sta. Cruz, Sta. Maria, Tangle, Cawayan, Eden, and San Patricio.
“The alleged procurement of the bottom coarse and different supplies earmarked for the (six) barangays within the whole quantity of P902,500 turned out to be ghost or inexistent purchases and deliveries,” it added.
Tumang, in his protection, cited the condonation doctrine. Nevertheless, the CA careworn that the condonation have to be raised on the “earliest alternative” through the administrative proceedings. As this protection was not offered in time, it’s thought-about waived, the CA mentioned. Condonation doctrine signifies that “if a public official is reelected, any administrative offense dedicated throughout a earlier time period is deemed condoned or forgiven,” in line with jurisprudence.
In a latest interview with native media, Tumang continued to claim that the allegations towards him fall underneath the mentioned doctrine, including that he was nonetheless entitled to file an MR, which he had already submitted.
“Pekalawe ne ning CA itang kekaming MR na makaustu na kami man basta tukyan de itang meging itang Aguinaldo doctrine a ita, na entitled ku, ma-grant ya ing kekaming MR,” Tumang mentioned in Kapampangan.
(The CA checked our MR, which is simply applicable as long as they may observe that Aguinaldo doctrine, which is what I’m entitled to have, they may grant my MR.)
“At itang MR pakasala ke. Me-reelect kung 2010 entitled na ku. 2008, 2009 la reng kasu. 2016 me-reelect kung pasibayu, entitled na ku na naman. Me-abandon ya pamu ing Aguinaldu doctrine itang final election 2016. Retang me-reelect 2016 entitled la pa ketang Aguinaldo doctrine,” Tumang added.
(And that MR, I might spotlight. I used to be reelected in 2010, I used to be already entitled then. My circumstances had been in 2008, 2009. I used to be once more reelected in 2016, to which, once more, I’m entitled. The Aguinaldo doctrine was solely deserted within the final election in 2016. Those that had been reelected in 2016 are nonetheless entitled to that doctrine.)
Again in June, the Sandiganbayan 1st Division dismissed the graft complaints towards Tumang and businessman William Colis of Buyu Buying and selling on account of “inordinate delay.” Tumang and Colis had been charged with graft associated to the irregular buy of the bottom coarse and different building supplies.
The anti-graft courtroom famous that the preliminary investigation spanned 6 years, 4 months, and 12 days from the time of the submitting of the criticism on December 13, 2017, to the submitting of knowledge with the Courtroom on April 25, 2024.
The Sandiganbayan additionally discovered that the delay, which was attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, was unconvincing.
“Equally, the Courtroom can not give weight to the prosecution’s blanket invocation of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s inaccurate to say that your entire equipment of presidency was pressured to an entire standstill for greater than three years. Nonetheless, courts, for one, exerted all measures to regulate to the general public well being disaster by permitting the digital submitting of pleadings and the conduct of distant hearings to guarantee that the justice system continued to function and that the courts had been capable of dispense justice,” the Sandiganbayan mentioned.
“In sum, the Courtroom finds that there was inordinate delay within the preliminary investigation earlier than the Ombudsman and that the identical was in violation of the accused’s proper to speedy disposition of their case,” the decision said. – Rappler.com
