FORMER Parañaque mayor Joey Marquez and
three others were convicted yesterday of five counts of graft
and sentenced to 50 years in prison for the purchase of
overpriced broomsticks (walis tingting) without a public
bidding.
In a 30-page decision, the Sandiganbayan
Fourth Division upheld the claim of Director Cornelio Somido
and Prosecutor Karen F. Funelas of the Office of the Special
Prosecutor that Marquez, former city treasurer Silvestre S. de
Leon, former general services office OIC Ofelia C. Caunan and
former city accountant Marilou C. Tanael caused undue injury
to the government when they authorized the purchase of
broomsticks between January 1996 to September 1997.
The four were ordered to reimburse the
amount of P462,708 to government which corresponded to the
overpriced amount as determined by Commission on Audit
auditors.
They were told to post P150,000 additional
cash bonds each aside from the P90,000 bail for their
temporary liberty.
Acquitted were former city budget officer
Flocerfida M. Babida, mayor’s office staff Ailyn H. Romea and
Antonio G. Razo, a trader.
The court held that the five purchase
contracts signed by the convicted defendants violated
government guidelines set by the Commission on Audit, and
caused damage to the city government.
Somido and Funelas stressed the fact that
there was no public bidding despite the presence of several
purchase contracts entered into with ZARO Trading which was
owned by Razo.
The transactions involved acquisition of
31,334 pieces of "extra-sized" brooms at P15 each and 24,098
pieces of "extra large" brooms at P25 each.
COA said the small brooms were overpriced
by P4 each and the big ones by P14 each based on pricelists
obtained from the adjoining municipality (now city) of Las
Piñas for the same items.
Marquez said he will file an appeal as some
findings of the COA that were favorable to their case were
glossed over by the graft court.
"We’re a long way off from jail. This is part of the risk
of being a public servant," he said in a radio interview.
