Ex-PTA head Barbers gets 8 years for graft

MANILA, Philippines — Robert Dean Barbers, former general manager of the defunct Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA), was sentenced to up to eight years in prison for graft over alleged irregularities in the award and construction of a sports complex project in Intramuros, Manila that was eventually demolished for being illegal.

In a 100-page decision promulgated on June 27, the Sandiganbayan Special Sixth Division has found Barbers guilty of one count of violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

He was sentenced to a minimum of six years and one month to a maximum of eight years of imprisonment with the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification from holding public office.

Barbers, together with the other convicted accused, was also ordered to jointly pay the government P3.7 million, equivalent to the amount of public funds found to have been misused.

Apart from Barbers, convicted of one count of graft was former PTA deputy general manager Jose Dion Diaz, while former PTA department manager Armando Miranda and former deputy general manager Edgar Bocar were convicted of two and three counts of graft, respectively.

They were likewise sentenced to six years and one month up to eight years of imprisonment for each count of the offense.

Apart from jointly paying with Barbers the amount of P3.7 million, Miranda and Bocar were also ordered to jointly pay additional P5.1 million, representing the amounts of partial payments released to the contractor I.A. Bosque Construction Corp.

Filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2021, the graft cases stemmed from the alleged irregularities in the awarding of the sports complex construction project in Intramuros, Manila in 2005.

The ombudsman said the project, with a total contract price of P24 million, was awarded to I.A. Bosque Construction despite lack of approval from the PTA Board as well as from the Intramuros Administration (IA).

The ombudsman said that despite the irregularities, Barbers signed a disbursement voucher for the release of P3.71 million to I.A. Bosque Construction, representing mobilization fees for the start of the project. The ombudsman said this was even if the construction project at that time still lacked building and development permits, locational clearance and IA approval.

Meanwhile, the ombudsman said Miranda and Bocar also released P1.05 million and P4.06 million, representing the first and second partial payments, respectively, to I.A. Bosque Construction.

The project was eventually declared illegal and was ordered demolished by Branch 52 of the Manila Regional Trial Court.

In convicting Barbers and his co-accused former officials of the PTA (now known as the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority or TIEZA), the Special Sixth Division said the prosecution panel of the ombudsman was able to establish their “implied conspiracy” to give unwarranted benefit to I.A. Bosque Construction to the prejudice of the government.

“As pointed out by the prosecution, the accused were given every chance to rectify their errors, but they remained adamant, resulting in the disbursement of funds for nothing. Their open defiance of the law did not merely result in the loss of government funds but also incurred the risk that the project would not comply with the minimum safety standards, as signified by the required permits and licenses,” the court’s decision read.

“To the court, this is not simply overzealousness in the exercise of one’s duties – this is breach of duty in a blatant and extremely careless manner,” it added.