FORMER Bogo, Cebu municipal mayor Celestino Martinez III and assistant treasurer Julio Ursonal Jr. have been convicted by the Sandiganbayan of two counts of graft in connection with the alleged anomalous handling of P20 million cash assistance released in 2007 by the Department of Agriculture.
The anti-graft court’s Sixth Division sentenced both to six to ten years imprisonment for each count or a total of 12 to 20 years.
Former accountant Crescencio Verdida and former treasurer Rhett Minguez were also pronounced guilty of one count of graft and meted six to ten years imprisonment each.
All four were declared perpetually disqualified from holding public office and their retirement and gratuity benefits forfeited in favor of the government.
To top it all off, they were held jointly liable to indemnify the government in the sum of P20 million “to be paid immediately to the Bureau of Treasury.”
A fifth defendant, former budget officer Mary Lou Ursal, remains at large, prompting the court to order her case archived to be revived upon her arrest.
Associate Justice Kevin Narce B. Vivero penned the 119-page decision with Associate Justices Sarah Jane T. Fernandez and Karl B. Miranda concurring.
Based on the information filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2015, prosecutors accused Martinez and the other municipal officials of illegally transferring the DA funds to Bogo Municipal Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative (BMEMPC), a private non-government organization (NGO).
State auditors and corruption investigators said the defendants disregarded the intent of the cash release, which was to provide easy farm and livelihood loans for local farmers and fishermen under the Ginintuang Agrikulturang Makamasa (GAM).
Sangguniang Bayan member Samson Lepiten testified during trial that Martinez, Minguez, Ursonal, and Verdida were all members of the NGO and took out for themselves huge sums from the DA funds as loans.
Martinez received P5.5 million, Miguez P1 million, Ursonal P500,000, and Verdida P100,000. Of the four, only Minguez offered a collateral.
In declaring the accused guilty, the Sandiganbayan said their collective actions defeated the objectives of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA).
It noted that Martinez ignored the provisions of RA 7160 or the Local Government Code when he failed to secure the imprimatur of the Sangguniang Bayan before approving the fund transfer to BMEMPC.
“In the end, the four accused became the primary beneficiaries of the very thing which they …should have distributed to farmers and fisherfolks. They capitalized on the opportunity for self-aggrandizement while aggravating the hardscrabble life and immiseration of disadvantaged have-nots,” the court declared.
The court chided the defendants for submitting a “preposterous defense” when they claimed that they were also qualified to draw loans even if they are public officials.
“To add insult to injury, these civil servants even had the gall to declare before this Honorable Court that they were not ineligible beneficiaries because they moonlighted as weekend farmers,” the Sandiganbayan said.
