More charges to be filed against CH division chief

More charges are expected to be filed against a Cebu City Hall division chief who was arrested for receiving bribe after his other alleged victims came out to file complaints before the National Bureau of Investigation.

NBI supervising agent Rennan Augustus Oliva said there were other victims of Engracio Lumangtad who surfaced last Friday to file complaints.

There is a possibility that additional complaints against Lumangtad will be assigned to Oliva because he was the agent on case when Lumangtad was entrapped last week for receiving P45,000 bribe from Francisco Bontuyan.

The additional complaints against Lumangtad will be on top of the criminal charges that the NBI had already filed against him before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.

In fact, the anti-graft office has already filed a case in court for direct bribery against him but he posted a P20,000 bail for his temporary liberty.

Charges for violations of the Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and R.A. 6713, otherwise known as the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, are also filed against Lumangtad before the Ombudsman Visayas.

Lumangtad, 54, chief of the land appraisal division of the Cebu City Assessor’s Office, was caught by the NBI operatives last Tuesday noon in the act of receiving the P45,000 he allegedly demanded from Bontuyan in barangay Talamban.

Bontuyan said Lumangtad demanded P50,000 from him for the issuance of the tax declaration of the 2,000 square-meter property of his mother in barangay Pit-os. It was the second time that Lumangtad allegedly demanded exorbitant amount from him for the issuance of tax declaration of his mother’s property.

According to Bontuyan, he had previously given P80,000 to Lumangtad in September for the issuance of tax declaration of the 796-square meter property of his mother in barangay Pit-os.

Bontuyan said he made a personal follow-up of his mother’s application because it has been pending since 2006. Lumangtad allegedly told him that the application will not be approved because the property is being considered as a barangay road.

But Lumangtad reportedly offered to resolve the problem in exchange for P100,000, which the complainant haggled for P80,000. Sometime in January, Bontuyan said his mother applied for a separate tax declaration for another lot also in barangay Pit-os.

Bontuyan said he and his daughter went to the Cebu City Hall to follow-up the application. However, when his daughter made the follow-up, she was allegedly told by Lumangtad that they already had an agreement with her father.

Bontuyan said he immediately confronted Lumangtad about it. The suspect again told him that it is difficult to process the application but he can fix everything for P50,000.  — Fred P. Languido/LPM