Ex-mayor gets 10 years over deworming drug

MANILA, Philippines – The Sandiganbayan has sentenced a former town mayor in Davao Oriental to a maximum of 10 years in prison over the procurement of 11,000 deworming tablets in 2001.

Former Baganga mayor Gerry Morales and former municipal officials Emeritos Jovilla, Francisco Jimenez and Reymundo Escamillan were meted the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification from holding public office, according to the ruling of the sixth division of the anti-graft court.

They were also ordered to indemnify the government the amount of P196,900.

Graft probers said the former town officials “connived with each other and acted with evident bad faith” in procuring 110 boxes of Mebendazole tablets under the guise of an emergency purchase to circumvent the law on competitive public bidding.

”Medicine for deworming cannot be…considered an emergency purchase even in the face of a Sangguniang Bayan resolution which states that there is a calamity,” the court ruling stated.

The supporting documents for the transaction were ”highly questionable” because they lacked signatures and the  sales invoice were issued ahead of the purchase order, the court said.

“Their inconsistencies lead this court to believe that they attempted to circumvent the…rules,” it added.

The Sandiganbayan earlier sentenced Morales to up to 10 years imprisonment over the irregular purchase of oil and grease.