The Court of Appeals has ruled with finality clearing Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat Jr. of administrative charges over the questionable purchase of a government vehicle when he was still governor in 2003.
In a three-page resolution, the CA’s Special former 15th Division upheld its decision last June that reversed and set aside the March 2017 ruling of the Office of the Ombudsman that ordered the dismissal of Baguilat from government service for grave misconduct and gross neglect of duty.
The appellate court dismissed the motion for reconsideration filed by the Ombudsman for lack of merit.
The CA held that the arguments raised in the appeal were “mere rehash and reiterations of its allegations.”
“(The) Office of the Ombudsman failed to show patent or palpable error to warrant reconsideration of Our decision. As such, We find no valid reason to revise, much less to reverse or set aside what have been carefully set bright,” stated the resolution penned by Associate Justice Marlene Gonzales-Sison.
The case arose from the purchase of a P900,000 vehicle allegedly without public bidding when he was a governor in 2003.
In its earlier decision, the CA applied the “condonation doctrine” that absolves a reelected public official for administrative offenses committed during a previous term.
The Supreme Court abandoned the said doctrine in November 2015 in its ruling on the case former Makati Mayor Junjun Binay, but applied the ruling prospectively.
The appellate court ruled that the doctrine should still apply to Baguilat’s case because he allegedly committed his offenses in 2003, more than a decade before the SC’s decision.
Besides evading administrative liability, Baguilat’s criminal charges for graft have also been dismissed by the Sandiganbayan last April on the grounds of unreasonable delays in the Ombudsman’s investigation.
The Sandiganbayan granted the motion to dismiss of Baguilat, ruling that his right to a speedy disposition of cases was violated when it took the prosecution about 13 years to complete its fact-finding and preliminary investigations.
Records show that Baguilat purchased an Isuzu Trooper wagon on March 24, 2003, from JMS General Merchandise— a gas station business—three months before the budget was actually approved.
Baguilat and two of his co-accused allegedly conspired with one another when they anomalously purchased a second-hand Isuzu Wagon Trooper worth P900,000 from a certain Jose Man Singh of JMS General Merchandise during his term as Ifugao governor.
The province’s bids and awards committee (BAC) resorted to personal canvass, instead of holding a public bidding. The purchase request was also irregular because it specified the plate number, chassis number, motor engine number and other details of the specific vehicle bought by Baguilat.