Ex-Bataan mayor gets 18 years for malversation

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has sentenced former mayor Angel Peliglorio Jr. of Mariveles, Bataan  to up to 18 years in prison in connection with a botched public market project in 2005.

In a 54-page decision promulgated on June 3, the anti-graft court’s third division said Peliglorio and businessman Cedric Lee were found guilty of malversation of public funds under Article 217 of the Revised Penal Code.

The two were meted the accessory penalty of “absolute perpetual” disqualification from holding public office. They were also ordered to pay a fine of P23.47 million, which is equivalent to the amount of government funds found to have been malversed.

The court, on the other hand, cleared Peliglorio and Lee of violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act due to the failure of the prosecution to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2015, the cases stemmed from the municipal government’s payment of P23.47 million to Lee’s firm Izumo Contractors Inc. for the supposed construction of a public market.

The ombudsman said the market was never constructed.

The third division agreed with the ombudsman’s prosecution panel that none of the safeguards required by law were complied with before the P23.47 million was released to Izumo.

The court found no merit in Lee’s claim that he was entitled to P19.44 million as payment as his firm had supposedly rendered a detailed engineering design and geo-technical study.

“Nothing in the documents he (Lee) submitted could prove that Izumo is entitled to a lump sum payment of P19,442,267.48. Apart from his self-serving statements, there was no breakdown of the designs and studies he enumerated nor was there any contract that would prove that he outsourced and paid the other services,” the court ruling read.

The decision was penned by Associate Justice Bernelito Fernandez. Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice and third division chairperson Amparo Cabotaje-Tang and Associate Justice Ronald Moreno concurred with the decision.