The Ombudsman has dismissed charges against Palawan Gov. Jose Chaves Alvarez and two other officials for their roles in an alleged graft case filed at the Sandiganbayan for insufficiency of evidence.
On April 5, the Sandiganbayan Second Division granted the Ombudsman’s motion to drop the charges against Alvarez, former Local Water Utilities Administration chairman Lorenzo H. Jamora, and Gaspar D. Gonzales Jr., former general manager of the Cagayan de Oro City Water District.
Alvarez was still chairman of the Rio Verde Water Consortium Inc. when he, Jamora and Gonzales were charged with violating Republic Act 3019 along with members of the board of the water district after the latter awarded a Bulk Water Supply project in Cagayan de Oro to Rio Verde in 2004.
In a Memorandum on Reinvestigation recommended for approval by Special Prosecutor Edilberto G. Sandoval, the Ombudsman noted that the case’s formal complaint was filed jn 2016, or 12 years after the project was awarded, and nine years after it was completed in 2007.
Ombudsman Samuel R. Martires approved Sandoval’s recommendation to dismiss the charges, filed by previous officers of the anti-graft body, on March 28.
Private complainants, one of whom turned out to be a former lawyer for the Cagayan de Oro Water District, alleged in their case with the Sandiganbayan that Alvarez and the others unduly influenced the board of the water body to award the contract to Rio Verde.
“There is no overt act on the part of Alvarez indicating that he sought a favor from, or exerted pressure on the Board of Directors” of the water district, the Ombudsman said.
The observations of both the Ombudsman Field Investigation Unit and the Commission on Audit lack documentary support on the questioned bidding and award of the project, it added.
It also held that the changes in the take-off point and other amendments or supplements to the Bulk Water Supply Agreement do not support a finding of probable cause for the alleged offense.
Curiosly, a similar complaint was filed against Alvarez and others in 2016 by a certain Michelle D. Fox, a resident of San Vicente, Palawan – who lost overwhelmingly to the governor’s daughter Maria Carmela Alvarez, the same town’s incumbent mayor.