Ong must serve 64 years in jail

CEBU, Philippines - The Supreme Court has affirmed a Sandiganbayan ruling that sentenced former Naga mayor Paul Ong to 64 years imprisonment for falsification of public documents over the appointments of his two close relatives to government positions.

The High Tribunal’s Third Division, presided by Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, denied the consolidated appeals of Ong and his first cousin, Rosalio Galeos, because “the prosecution had established with moral certainty the guilt of petitioners for violating Article 171(4) of the Revised Penal Code.”

“We find no legal ground to reverse petitioners’ conviction,” said Associate Justice Martin Villarama Jr., who penned the 16-page decision promulgated by the Supreme Court last February 9.

Ong was found guilty by the anti-graft court in eight counts of falsification of public documents over the appointment Galeos and Federico Rivera to permanent positions in the municipal government.

The Supreme Court sustained the Sandiganbayan’s conviction of Galeos for his failure to state in his Statement of Assets Liabilities and Networth (SALN) that he and Ong are cousins.

The case filed against Rivera was dismissed because he died before the promulgation of the case.

Aside from prison term, the Sandiganbayan also slapped the former town mayor a fine of P40,000 and perpetually disqualified him from holding public office.

In convicting Ong, the Sandiganbayan stated that he was criminally liable for deliberately lying about his kinship with Galeos and Rivera, whom he appointed to permanent positions in the municipal government.

Ong has been appointed officer-in-charge (OIC) mayor of Naga on April 16, 1986. In 1988, he was elected mayor, a post he held until 1998.

But before his term ended, Ong extended permanent appointments to Galeos and Rivera for the positions of Construction and Maintenance Man, and Plumber 1, respectively.

Ong had claimed that at the time of his term, he did not know that he and Galeos are relatives. But it was established that both their mothers were sisters.

During the trial of the case, both Ong and Galeos admitted they are first cousins, although they denied having knowledge of such relationship at the time the employment documents were processed.

According to the Supreme Court, the Sandiganbayan was right in rejecting the defense of Ong and Galeos that they were unaware of their relationship within the fourth degree of consanguinity.

“Given the Filipino cultural trait of valuing strong kinship and extended family ties, it was unlikely for Galeos who had been working for several years in the municipal government of Naga not to have known of his close blood relation to Ong,” the SC ruling reads.

The High Tribunal said: “It was simply unthinkable that as a resident of Naga since birth, and a politician at that, Ong was all the time unaware that he himself appointed to permanent positions the son of his mother’s sister and the husband of his first cousin, in the case of Rivera.”

In the case of Rivera, the former mayor claimed he did not know they are relatives because his family was not very close to their other relatives. But such claims were also rejected by the Supreme Court.

Ong and Galeos can still appeal the decision before the High Tribunal’s En Banc. — /LPM (FREEMAN)