8 Kalunasan officials cleared of malversation

CEBU, Philippines - For insufficient evidence, the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas cleared former barangay officials of Kalunasan, Cebu City, for technical malversation.

Graft investigator Maria Corazon Vergara-Naraja said the complainants failed to show evidence that the funds intended for certain projects were used for something else.

“Verily, the complaint failed to show the existence of all elements for Illegal Use of Public Funds or Technical Malversation under Article 220 of the Revised Penal Code,” the resolution read.

Named respondents were former barangay captain Edelito Mabano and councilmen Rudy Badiang, Jaime Manatad, Oliver Ocampo, Ramon Enrique Tiong Jr., Aristeo Anadia, Maria Hermosa Gabisay and Nazaryl Manatad.

In their complaint, eight residents of Kalunasan alleged that on Feb. 15, 2010 Cebu City through former mayor Tomas Osmeña entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with Barangay Kalunasan.

In the said agreement, the city granted Kalunasan P3,317,813 for the proposed distribution of piped water and P2,999,756 for various infrastructure projects.

They added the MOA stated that the funds will be used for the said projects.

The complainants said the barangay identified as proposed infrastructure projects the construction of a water reservoir for P325,000 and a covered court for P2,380,000 and the roofing of a multi-purpose stage of Sitio Kalubihan.

However, they said the barangay council passed Resolution No. 25 series of 2010 dated May 18, 2010 realigning the allocation for the improvement of the covered court and roofing of the multi-purpose hall into funding for the construction of the Barangay Kalunasan Complex.

They added that residents of Sitio Kalubihan wrote a letter to Mabano demanding the return of the allocation for their covered court and roofing of their multi-purpose hall.

On August 3, 2010, the complainants said the barangay council passed Resolution No. 29 series of 2010 realigning the budget for pipeline distribution into road concreting of the existing road lower to upper Kalunasan citing the road was unsafe for motorists.

The complainants alleged the action of respondents in diverting the funds to other purposes equals to technical malversation.

In his counter-affidavit, Mabano claimed the realignment of funds was covered by barangay resolutions.

“The decision to realign the funding was a collective action of the barangay council,” he said.

Mabano added the funds in question were still intact in the depository bank.

The barangay council said that there was no technical malversation in their part considering the realignment was covered by resolutions.

Upon evaluation of the evidence of both parties, Naraja found the evidence presented by the complainants failed to establish all elements of technical malversation.

She narrated the three elements --the offender is an accountable public officer, the application of public funds under the administration to some public use, and the public use for which the public funds were applied is different from the purpose for which they were originally appropriated by ordinance.

Naraja said there can be no technical malversation if there is no law or ordinance mandating that the funds given by Cebu City will be solely spent on a certain project.

“It must be stressed that the mere enactment of the barangay resolution realigning funds is not sufficient to establish technical malversation. There must be proof that the funds were indeed used or applied to some public use other than that for which it is originally appropriated by law or ordinance,” the resolution read. (FREEMAN)