Mayor accused of bigamy posts bail

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines  – A mayor here facing a bigamy case before a Quezon City court managed to escape jail time after being able to post bail before police could arrest him for said charges. 

Bagabag town Mayor Nestor Sevillena, whom the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 97 ordered arrested on Sept. 7 for a bigamy case, posted the required P24,000 bail bond for his temporary liberty while his case is being heard by said court.

Sevillena posted bail at the Bagabag municipal circuit trial court Thursday or two days after RTC Judge Bernalito Fernandez ordered his arrest for the bigamy case filed against him by the Ombudsman before said court.

Former Bayombong RTC Judge Jose Rosales, now dean of the Catholic-run Saint Mary’s University’s College of Law here, said that a convicted bigamist suffers a penalty of prision mayor or a minimum of six-year jail to a maximum of 12 years.   

Sevillena was formally charged with bigamy by the Ombudsman on March 22 for allegedly contracting marriage to two different women.

In her 10-page order then, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez had affirmed the resolution of the Ombudsman’s graft investigation and prosecution officer, charging Sevillena for bigamy.

Sevillena’s headache stemmed from a complaint by one Dionisio Velasco and Antonio Nival in 2005, accusing him of contracting marriage on two different occasions.

Records indicate that Sevillena, then 21, married Amy Nadugo, then 22, on Jan. 30, 1984 under civil rites in Bagabag town. Again, 16 years after, he contracted marriage with Amid Afan, then 43, in Quezon City in December 2000 before a pastor.

The Office of the Ombudsman said that documentary evidence show the presence of essential requisites of the mayor’s second marriage while his first marriage was still valid.

Sevillena, now 48, who won his third and final term as mayor in the last elections amid said charges, again engaged in another marriage to fellow public official, Maybelle Dumlao, 30, a board member here, under Islamic rites on Sept. 9, 2009.  

In his certificate of candidacy in the last elections, Sevillena identified Nadugo as his spouse, indicating he considers his first marriage still valid while Dumlao named him as her husband.