Vicente Loot’s wife convicted of graft, malversation

MANILA, Philippines — Former Daanbantayan, Cebu mayor Maria Luisa Loot has been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison over a livelihood project of the municipal government when she was mayor.

Loot’s husband Vicente, also a former mayor of Daanbantayan and a former police official, is in President Duterte’s narco list.

Loot and former councilor Samuel Moralde were sentenced to six to eight years in prison for graft and two to seven years for malversation, the Sandiganbayan’s Seventh Division said in a decision promulgated on Aug. 2 and released yesterday.

 Loot and Moralde were also perpetually disqualified from holding public office. They were likewise ordered to pay  P500,000, which is equivalent to the amount of public funds that they malversed, to the municipal government.

Filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in April 2018, the cases stemmed from the grant of a loan amounting to P500,000 to private organization RBA Quail Raisers Association (RBA) in 2007, when Moralde was its chairman.

The ombudsman said Loot entered into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with RBA on Feb. 28, 2007 to finance its quail egg farming operation as part of the local government’s livelihood project.

The ombudsman said the MOA was not approved by the Sangguniang Bayan. RBA was not an accredited organization at the time, it added.

Loot and Moralde did not comply with the conditions in the MOA, such as periodic monitoring and evaluation to check the implementation of the project. The loan remains unpaid.

The court said it was only on Dec. 19, 2008, when Loot was vice mayor, when she issued a certificate of accreditation to RBA.

The court said Loot also failed to present any evidence to prove that the money was used for its intended purpose.

While Moralde insisted that the fund was used to buy quail chicks and feeds as well as to defray RBA’s operating expenses, the Sandiganbayan said no document was presented to support his claim.