THE former general manager of the Tugaya Water District in Lanao del Sur has been sentenced by the Sandiganbayan to reclusion perpetua for allegedly pocketing more than P10 million in public funds intended for improving the local water supply.
Jamaloden Faisal was found by the anti-graft court’s Third Division guilty of one count each of graft and malversation of public funds over an alleged bogus project undertaken in 2011 with funding from the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA).
Associate Justice Ronald B. Moreno penned the 61-page decision, with Presiding Justice Amparo M. Cabotaje-Tang and Bernelito R. Fernandez concurring.
For the graft charge, Faisal was sentenced to six to ten years imprisonment with perpetual disqualification from holding any other public post.
In the separate case of malversation of public funds, he was meted reclusion perpetua with an additional penalty of fine in the sum of P10,074,680 equivalent to the amount he pocketed.
The case, filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2018, alleged that Faisal conspired with private defendant Alikahn Ebrahim to defraud the Tugaya WD in the sum of P10,074,680.
Prosecutors said it was Ebrahim who prepared a spurious “Physical Accomplishment Report” for July 2011 supposedly proving that the P25 million water supply improvement project was already being implemented, enabling Faisal to cover up the misappropriation of the initial funding release.
Ebrahim remains at large, leaving the court no option but to order his cases archived pending his arrest.
Prosecutors submitted the findings of State Auditor Mimbalawag Salic which showed that the supposed accomplishments on the project were never validated due to security concerns in the area and were not backed by official receipts or by any record showing transfer of funds.
NBI investigators Froilan Grageda and Mahatma Sarip testified they conducted an onsite inspection but found that the supposed initial works on the project did not exist, including the proposed reservoirs despite the report of the defendant that the accomplishment was already 59 percent complete.
