The Sandiganbayan Third Division has sentenced to six years imprisonment Mayor Luisito Marty of Sta Cruz, Zambales for graft and usurpation of legislative powers for stopping the operations of two licensed mining firms in his municipality.
The anti-graft court sentenced Marty to a minimum of six years, five months, and 21 days in jail.
In its 42-page decision dated Feb.15, the Sandiganbayan said Marty had no authority to halt the operations of Zambales Diversified Metals Corp. and the Zambales Chromite Mining Co. since they had secured licenses from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.
Based on court records, ZDMC and ZCMC filed the complaint against the mayor after the mining firms had a hard time securing business permits following a memorandum issued by Marty that required them to first secure a mayor’s permit before they can pay their occupation fees to the municipal treasurer.
As far as the court is concerned, Marty “acted with evident bad faith when he issued the memorandum directing the municipal treasurer not to accept payment of occupation fees by the mining firms.”
“In sum, the Court holds that accused Marty’s unilateral issuance of a mere memorandum, which effectively prevented the ZDMC and ZCMC from paying their occupation fees, and his inaction on the business permit application…without any sufficient legal basis and/or justification unquestionably manifest evident bad faith on his part,” the court said.
The court added the two mining firms had secured valid mineral production sharing agreements from the national government, and that a business permit was not even required for companies to operate under Republic Act 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.
In addition, the municipality accepted in the past occupation fee payments from ZDMC without demanding the submission of additional requirement.
