Ex-brgy officials cleared of charges

CEBU, Philippines - Former barangay officials of Cogon Pardo, Cebu City have been cleared by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas of the charges filed against them for the alleged failure to submit monthly reports and barangay accounts before the Commission on Audit and the City Accountant’s Office.

Graft investigation and prosecution officer 1 Carmelle Baybay-Suson said she found no probable cause to hold former barangay captain Lyndon Fermo and former barangay treasurer Cerio Sabiquiel liable for violation of Article 218 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) or failure of an accountable officer to render accounts.

“The complaint, however, is unclear whether respondents failed to liquidate the barangay funds or simply failed to submit whatever required reports and documents they should submit to the City Accountant for CY 2007. There is no allegation that there are barangay funds or expenditures that remained unliquidated,” the joint resolution states.

The complaint was filed by the Public Assistance and Corruption Prevention Office and Harry R. Eran, who was then acting as barangay captain of Cogon Pardo. They alleged that Fermo and Sabiquiel violated Article 218 of the RPC and misconduct, an administrative complaint.

Further, the complainants alleged that the respondents failed to submit to the COA and to the City Accountant’s Office the monthly reports and registries of Calendar Year 2007 barangay accounts which includes the original copies of disbursement vouchers and its supporting documents, duplicate copies of official receipts, among  others.

In his counter-affidavit, Fermo denied the accusations filed against him. He claimed that he was not in actual custody of the original copies of disbursement vouchers and their supporting documents and he was not responsible of submitting the same before the COA and the City Accountant’s Office.

For his part, Sabiquiel admitted in his counter-affidavit that he is fully accountable for all vouchers, officials’ receipts and accounting reports of the barangay being the treasurer.

He said he failed to submit the reports because after the 2007 Barangay Elections where Fermo lost to Eugenio Gabuya Jr., he was “physically prevented from going inside the Barangay Hall.”

Sabiquiel added that all the vouchers, official receipts and reports were left inside the cabinets of the Barangay Hall.

It was already in the middle of  2010, he said, that he submitted the required documents and reports to the COA after Eran and the barangay council allowed him to gather the documents.

With the foregoing, Suson ruled in favor of the respondents adding that the complainants did not even rebut to the claim of Sabiquiel that he could have turned over the documents if he had not been physically prevented from going inside the Barangay Hall.

Suson likewise dismissed the misconduct filed against the respondents for lack of jurisdiction since they were no longer in public office. — (FREEMAN)