SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga - Like the true fighter that he is in his movies, Pampanga Gov. Manuel "Lito" Lapid vows to slug out his case until the very end.
Lapid said yesterday he would defy any move to oust him from office as Ombudsman Aniano Desierto asked newly appointed Interior and Local Government Secretary Alfredo Lim to enforce the one-year suspension of the governor and three others in connection with an alleged P20-million scam on lahar sand quarrying fees.
Desierto made the request after an adjudication panel, headed by Assistant Ombudsman Abelardo Aportadera, threw out the appeals of Lapid, Vice Gov. Clayton Olalia, provincial treasurer Jovito Sabado and SPO4 Nestor Tadeo, a relative of Lapid's wife Marissa.
The panel reiterated its earlier findings that they "illegally exacted from (lahar sand) quarry operators P120 for every truck of sand, on top of the legally prescribed fee of P40."
"I know that Mr. Lim is a good lawyer and knows my right to appeal the case before the Court of Appeals. The Ombudsman's order is not final and executory," Lapid said after consulting with his lawyers.
He vowed to fight any move to unseat him until the Supreme Court rules on the suspension order.
Provincial attorney Benalfre Galang argued that under the Ombudsman's rules of procedure, "the respondents may still file an appeal with the higher court within 10 days upon receipt of such order."
As of yesterday, Galang said the one-year suspension order has not been officially served on Lapid.
Augusto Panlilio, the governor's chief legal counsel, said he has already delivered a letter to Lim requesting that enforcement of the suspension order be deferred "on the basis of existing laws and Supreme Court decisions."
"We will also file our petition for certiorari with the Court of Appeals on Monday," Panlilio said.
Graft investigators said Lapid and his co-respondents "directed" the quarry operators in a meeting to buy control slips and official receipts from Tadeo, who is Lapid's "childhood friend and buddy."
Conspiracy
Desierto said the Ombudsman panel concluded that there was alleged conspiracy among the four respondents to impose the illegal fees.
In January last year, Lapid was placed on a six-month preventive suspension over the same case. The Ombudsman filed the graft charges last August.
A Pampanga mayor, Marino Morales of Mabalacat town, was exonerated.
The case stemmed from the complaint of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agent Sixto Comia who alleged that Pampanga officials, in cahoots with Lapid's kumpadres Rodrigo Fernandez and Conrado Pangilinan, were collecting P120 for every truck- load of gravel and sand, on top of the P40 prescribed fee.
Six quarry operators, three clerks and two truck drivers pointed to Lapid and the other respondents as the ones who introduced the "control slips" used in the collection of illegal fees that were not remitted to the provincial government.
The witnesses were quarry operators Augusto Ayson, Rufino Lansangan, Antonio Buyson, Jaime Garbo and Romeo Caugiran, clerks Judith Manasala, Noemi Tan and Lea Lozano, and truck drivers Marcelo Sebastian and Orlando Alvarez.
In the information, the Ombudsman said the collection of illegal quarrying fees could not have continued "so openly and systematically without the calculated and orchestrated participation, consent, acquiescence and/or knowledge" of the respondents.
In another development, the Ombudsman ordered the prosecution of Municipal Trial Court Judge William Samson Suriaga of Angeles City for alleged estafa and violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.
NBI agents entrapped Suriaga while allegedly soliciting and receiving P250,000 from a couple in exchange for a favorable verdict on a case pending appeal before the sala of a Regional Trial Court judge, Philbert Ituralde.