FORMER mayor Cesar Alpay of Unisan, Quezon province has been meted out with a 10-year jail term for distributing agricultural equipment to farmers from the P1-million social fund of former president and now Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of Pampanga province, without directing the beneficiaries to pay back the loan.

The Sandiganbayan Fourth Division convicted Alpay of graft when he bought hand tractors worth P459,110 and motor engines worth P418,200 and distributed them to farmers and fishermen, but did not make it clear that the dole outs had to be repaid.

In the ponencia of Associate Justice Gregory Ong, the court found that Alpay failed to implement the repayment scheme of the loan program of Mrs. Arroyo.

Under Executive Order 176 that created the “Isang Bayan, Isang Produkto, Isang Milyong Piso” program, the government would grant P1-million loans to small and medium enterprises provided that the beneficiaries pay it back.

Alpay applied for the loan and received a check of P1 million from the government, which he used to buy tractors and engines. However, these were given to his constituents without requiring them to pay the loan.

Prosecution witnesses Virginia Buhat and Guillermo Nepomuceno, residents of Unisan and recipients of a tractor and an engine, told the court that they were made to sign an affidavit without any indicated amount.

Both witnesses said that they only knew about the loan scheme after Alpay’s term. Both wanted to return the machines for they have “no means to pay the loans.”