AN incumbent governor and Liberal Party candidate for a Congress seat in Occidental Mindoro province is facing a criminal charge for keeping in her custody a mobile clinic and pieces of equipment that supposed to be donations.

In a two-page charge sheet filed before the antigraft court Sandi-ganbayan, the Office of the Ombudsman slapped Gov. Josephine Ramirez-Sato of failure to make delivery of public property, which violated Article 221 of the Revised Penal Code.

According to state investigators, Sato failed to distribute a mobile clinic (NPR 669) pegged at P3.46 million in November 2001.

Sato served as a former representative of the province from 2001 to 2004 before running and being elected as governor.

She will be running as a representative for the lone district of Occidental Mindoro under the Liberal Party of President Benigno Aquino 3rd against Lakas nominee Edgardo Urieta, who served as a long-time chief of the Sandiganbayan Sheriff Division.

Apart from the mobile clinic, pieces of medical and laboratory equipment, which were donations from ERAP Partnership for the Poor Foundation and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office were not also distributed, the Ombudsman alleged.

Graft investigators said that Sato “willfully, unlawfully and feloniously refuse to make delivery [the donations] despite repeated demands of the provincial government of Occidental Mindoro.”

The Ombudsman will initially present, among others, five witnesses including Engr. Glicerio Alemro Jr., former general services officer of the province, and lawyer Rolando Arella-no, former provincial legal counsel.

The antigraft agency did require a bail for the criminal charge “unless ordered by the [Sandiganbayan].”