A group of Pasig City residents has filed a graft and administrative complaint against former mayor Roberto Eusebio for a P25-million financial aid to a town in Camarines Sur, where his wife was supposed to run as a congressional bet in the May 13 elections.
The Tambuli ng Mamamayan ng Pasig Inc. said Eusebio and other respondents must be held liable for violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, grave misconduct, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and abuse of authority.
The group urged the Office of the Ombudsman to place those who are still occupying positions under preventive suspension. The Standard tried but could not contact Eusebio for comment at presstime.
The complainants questioned the grant of a financial assistance to Pamplona, Camarines Sur, a sister city of Pasig. They alleged the financial assistance was designed to advance the political ambition of Eusebio’s wife, Maribel, who was also a former Pasig City mayor.
Apart from the Eusebios, then-vice mayor Iyo Christian Bernardo and former councilors Rodrigo Asilo, Gregorio Rupisan Jr., Rhichie Gerard Brown, Orlando Benito, Regino Balderama, Rosalio Martires, Ferdinand Avis, Reynaldo San Buenaventura and Wilfredo Sityar were included in the complaint.
Former Pamplona Mayor Augustus Caesar Cruz III was not spared for his failure to act on the letters of the complainants for copies of the memoranda of agreement between the two cities.
“On the part of the Municipality of Pamplona, there is no appropriate ordinance issued to enter into a sisterhood agreement with the City of Pasig as required by Section 33 of the Local Government Code,” the complainant stated.
The Pasig City council passed the sisterhood city resolution in May 2018.
“Customarily, the check should have been awarded by the mayor, any elected official of Pasig city, the city treasurer or any legitimate official of Pasig City,” the complaint read.
“However, in order to advance her political designs, it was respondent Maribel Andaya-Eusebio, the wife of Mayor Robert ‘Bobby’ Eusebio, who turned over the P25-million check,” it cited.
The agreements guaranteed a total P125 million in financial grants to Pamplona town in a period of five years.