Because of the Office of the Ombudsman’s failure to follow its own procedures, the Sandiganbayan dismissed 24 charges filed against a former vice mayor of Lamitan City, Basilan.
The anti-graft court’s First Division junked the 12 counts of graft, six counts of violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and six counts of violation of the Local Government Code of 1991 filed against former vice mayor Arleigh Eisma.
In its 25-page resolution, the Sandiganbayan cited “vexatious, capricious, and oppressive” delays in the investigation of the Ombudsman.
The charges against Eisma stemmed from his decision to tap his own gas station business as the supplier of fuel requirements of his office and the city council from October 2011 to January 2012 and May to November 2012. The fuel procurement totaled P1.97 million.
The Ombudsman said Eisma acted with “manifest partiality and evident bad faith” for allowing the purchase of fuel from his own Shell Station for vehicles used by the Office of the Vice Mayor and the Sangguniang Panlungsod without public bidding, “giving unwarranted benefits, advantage and preference to his own gas station.”
But the anti-graft court still dropped the charges against Eisma, noting that the Ombudsman failed to observe its own rules to terminate the process of preliminary investigation within 10 days after the last pleading was filed.
“In these cases, such process dragged on for three years and five months. The protracted investigation… constitutes inordinate delay on the part of the Office of the Ombudsman thereby effectively removing from it the authority to file … and to pursue the instant criminal cases,” the Sandiganbayan resolution read.
Eisma, for his part, said the charges against him were just politically motivated, and that then-mayor Roderick Furigay approved such transactions.
