FORMER Caloocan City mayor and representative Enrico Echiverri was arrested on Thursday inside the Sandiganbayan for graft raps over the alleged overpriced, multimillion-peso drainage projects in 2011.
Echiverri was attending a hearing on a motion for case dismissal he filed when a sheriff from Third Division served the arrest warrant against him.
The anti-graft court, however, granted Echiverri’s petition for bail reduction to P15,000 from the recommended original bail of P30,000.
The court’s sheriff also arrested former Caloocan City accountant Edna Centeno and former Caloocan City budget officer Jesusa Garcia.
The anti-graft court’s Third Division also granted Centeno and Garcia’s petition for bail reduction.
Each posted a total of P21,000, or P15,000 for graft and P6,000 for falsification of public documents.
Echiverri, Centeno and Garcia were charged with one count of violation of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act at the Third Division.
In its resolution, the Office of the Ombudsman said the respondents gave “unwarranted benefits and advantage to supposedly anomalous projects involving the P2.7-million contract to E.V. & E Construction for the improvement of the drainage system of Molave Street in Pleasantview Subdivision, and P1.9-million contract awarded to Golden 3T Construction for the improvement of the drainage system along Saplungan Street’s drainage system.”
The Commission on Audit also issued Echiverri a notice of disallowance.
“Without authority from the Sangguniang Panglungsod, Echiverri entered into a contract with EVEC which constituted an unwarranted benefit and privilege granted to a private party,” Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales said.