BLAMING bad weather for delays in the completion of an infrastructure project failed to save former Guagua, Pampanga mayor Ricardo Rivera after he was convicted by the Sandiganbayan for violation of Section 3 (e) of RA 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Associate Justice Alex L. Quiroz, Fourth Division chairperson, penned the 34-page decision that held the accused guilty of causing undue injury to the municipal government and giving unwarranted advantage to the private contractor who took more than 10 years to complete a slaughterhouse that was supposed to take only eight months.
Associate Justices Lorifel Lacap Pahimna and Bayani H. Jacinto concurred.
Rivera was sentenced to six to eight years imprisonment with perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
Based on the information filed by the Office of the Ombudsman on July 24, 2013, the municipal government awarded the P28.96 million contract for the Guagua Municipal Slaughterhouse to NC’s General Contractor on April 13, 2009.
The bulk of the budget for the project was funded by a P25.8 million loan obtained by the local government from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).
According to the contract, the slaughterhouse was supposed to be fully completed on or before December 20, 2009 but the date came and went without the turnover of the structure for public use.
On August 14, 2011, Guagua started paying a monthly amortization of P182,290.90 for the loan, more than two years since the project started, but still the slaughterhouse remained unfinished.
In convicting Rivera, the court noted that in fact, it was only in August 2019 that the slaughterhouse started full operations – almost 10 years beyond the deadline.
Prosecutors said the accused neither terminated the contract nor imposed liquidated damages against NC’s General Contractor.
The defense said it would have been unfair to penalize the private contractor because the delays were not entirely its fault.
Instead, the defendant assigned the blame on the weather, citing typhoons and torrential rains that supposedly caused extensive flooding in the work site.
The Sandiganbayan, however, threw out the testimony of the defense witness for being hearsay as well as the printed copy of weather reports as mere scraps of paper since the documents were not authenticated. It likewise took the defendant to task for attempting to mislead the court.
“This Court finds that accused Rivera acted with gross inexcusable negligence when he failed to take appropriate action to ensure the completion of the construction of the Guagua Municipal Slaughterhouse within the period fixed in the contract and to institute proper legal action against NC’s General Contractor without justifiable reason,” the anti-graft court declared.
