Ex-Naga mayor gets 64-year jail term

The Sandiganbayan sentenced former Naga mayor Paulino Ong to a total of 64 years in prison after finding him guilty of hiring two relatives to serve in government and not declaring their names in his statements of assets and liabilities.

In a 23-page decision, Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta ruled that Ong's failure to include his co-accused and relatives Rosaho S. Galeos and Federico Rivera in his SAL was considered a falsification of public documents.

Public officials and employees are required by the Local Government Code to submit their SAL every year. They are also required to disclose the names of their relatives working with the government to prevent nepotism.

Records showed that during his term, Ong hired to permanent positions in the municipal government Galeos, as construction and maintenance worker, and Rivera as plumber.

The anti-graft court also convicted Galeos and Rivera for falsifying public documents when they failed to declare in their SAL that Ong is a close relative.

It sentenced Galeos and Rivera to 32 years and 24 years of imprisonment respectively. Rivera, who died in 2003, was included in the decision because of the late submission of the notice of his death.

"Their failure to disclose the truth shows that they maliciously perverted the truth," the Sandiganbayan ruling said.

The government prosecutors were able to present witnesses who confirmed that Ong and Galeos are cousins, contrary to Galeos's declaration in his SAL. Ong acknowledged this relationship in his joint stipulation of facts with the prosecution. His mother is the sister of Rivera's mother-in-law.

The law provides that public officials are prohibited from appointing their relatives to the government service, except for jobs that are confidential in nature such as private secretary.

Exempted from the anti-nepotism law are teachers, physicians, and members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, but concerned public officials must report their appointment to the Civil Service Commission.

Ong, 71, started out as officer-in-charge of Naga in 1986 when Corazon Aquino was catapulted to power after the EDSA revolution. He ran and won as mayor for three terms.

In 1998, Ong ran and won as vice mayor in tandem with his cousin-turned political foe Ferdinand Chiong, the incumbent mayor of the town.

Ong, who attended the promulgation of the case on Thursday, was sad because he believed the anti-graft court would acquit him. But his lawyer, Rory Jon Sepulveda, is planning to file a motion for reconsideration of the decision. - Rene U. Borromeo