CA clears Lamitan vice mayor from 2012 Ombudsman graft case

COTABATO CITY --- The Court of Appeals has exonerated the incumbent vice mayor of Lamitan City from a graft case that his lawyer said was inappropriate all along.By legal implication, the CA in Cagayan de Oro City declared invalid the six-month suspension by the Ombudsman of Vice Mayor Roderic Furigay from office.The counsel of Furigay, Quirino Esguerra, said Sunday the April 26, 2018 CA ruling also implied that the government has to pay the vice mayor his salary and other fringe benefits due him for the entire duration of the suspension period. We are grateful to the Court of Appeals for acting on our petition to set the case aside, Esguerra said.Furigay’s camp distributed copies of the CA ruling only last Saturday.The graft case of Furigay in the Ombudsman stemmed from service procurement transactions in 2012 while he was still mayor of Lamitan City.The disbursements that the Ombudsman questioned, P548,256 for the construction of the Barangay Kulay Bato boat dock and P175,000 for a Department of Agriculture geographical protection project, were paid to private entities contracted by the Lamitan City local government unit.Esguerra said both transactions did not violate any state accounting rule.Esguerra said his client was not even a signatory to all documents pertaining to both transactions that were perceived by the Ombudsman as anomalous. In a simple Filipino statement `pinawalang bisa’ ng Court of Appeals ang kaso.’ That is what happened with Vice Mayor Furigay’s case in the Ombudsman, Esguerra said.Local leaders in Lamitan City, capital of Basilan province, said Sunday political adversaries of Furigay instigated the graft complaint against him.Furigay had served as mayor for three consecutive terms before he was elected vice mayor during the 2013 local elections.Furigay, now a second termer vice mayor, is seeking reelection during next year’s electoral exercise.The April 27, 2018 CA ruling on Furigay’s Ombudsman case, docketed OMB-MA-16-0173, was signed by Associate Justices Edgardo Lloren, Ruben Reynaldo Roxas and Walter Ong.