THE Sandiganbayan has absolved Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza of graft charges that arose from the 2012 fuel purchases by the provincial government to a gas station allegedly owned by her mother.
In a 35-page decision penned by Associate Justice Geraldine Faith Econg with Associate Justices Efren de La Cruz and Edgardo Caldona concurring, the anti-graft court blamed the prosecution’s failure to show evidence that Taliño Mendoza used her position and abused her power to give undue advantage to the gas station of her mother to supply fuel for the heavy equipment machineries deployed for province’s infrastructure projects.
The provincial government’s bids and awards committee, not the governor, was the one that chose the supplier, court records showed.
The camp of Taliño Mendoza said that the cost was only one of the factors in choosing the supplier since the bids and awards committee must also determine the volume capacity, distance from the project site and conformity to deliver on credit.
“It should be emphasized that the accused did not chose which mode of procurement should be used in the purchase of fuel. It was the bids and awards committee through its Resolution No. 0855… that recommended for the purchase of fuel through direct contracting,” the court decision read.
The prosecution said there was manifest partiality and evident bad faith on the part of the governor when she approved the bids and awards committee’s resolution to the purchase of fuel by an alternative mode of procurement that waived public bidding.
The anti-graft court said an alternative mode of procurement was allowed by the law so that “the lack of public bidding does not necessarily mean that the procurement is flawed.”
The ruling also cited the committee’s documents did not include the name of Taliño Shell station or of Noemi Taliño when they were submitted for the governor’s signature.