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By Jomar Canlas Reporter
Former Parañaque City Mayor Joey
Marquez faces a 50-year jail term after the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth
Division affirmed his conviction in a graft case involving
overpriced “walis tingting” or broomsticks.
Marquez was convicted of five
counts of violating Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt
Practices Act.
In a 45-page resolution of the
antigraft court penned by Associate Justice Jose Hernandez and was
concurred with by Associate Justices Rodolfo Ponferrada and Gregory
Ong, the court found Marquez and former bids and awards committee
member Ofelia Caunan guilty beyond reasonable doubt after junking
their motion for reconsideration.
“The motion for new trial and
motion for reconsideration ad cautelam, motion to recuse, motion to
reopen proceedings and motion for reconsideration, all filed by Joey
P. Marquez, are denied,” the Sandiganbayan said.
Former City Accountant Marilou
Tanael, on the other hand, was acquitted after the Sandiganbayan
granted her motion for reconsideration, while the conviction of
former City Treasurer Silvestre de Leon was junked because he died
before the decision was rendered.
Marquez and Caunan were convicted
for irregularities in the purchase of broomsticks worth P2.94
million between January 1996 and September 1997, during their stint
as Parañaque officials.
The two were accused of
conspiracy in splitting the contracts to get around the rule on
mandatory public bidding and of overpricing the cost of the
broomsticks.
In each count, they were ordered
by the Sandiganbayan to suffer the imprisonment of six to 10 years,
or an accumulated total of 50 years in jail.
On August 2007, the Sandiganbayan
upheld the contention of Director Cornelio Somido and Karen Funelas—both
of the Office of the Special Prosecutor—that Marquez and the other
defendants caused undue injury to the government when they
authorized the purchase of overpriced brooms.
The prosecutors earlier stressed
that Marquez was charged for the contract that was entered into
without public bidding despite the fact that there was several
purchase contracts entered into with ZARO Trading owned by defendant
Razo.
The transactions involved buying
31,334 pieces of “extra-sized” brooms at P15 each and another
24,098 pieces of “extra large” brooms at P25 each. The
Commission on Audit said the small brooms were overpriced by P4 each
and cost of the big ones was padded by P14 each, based on pricelists
obtained from Las Piñas City for the same items.
The accused were also ordered to
reimburse the government in the amount of P462,708 corresponding to
the overpricing as determined by government auditors.
In the motion for reconsideration
of Marquez, he claimed the prosecution committed an illegal
splitting of the charges into five when there should have been only
one case, and he said he was not given opportunity to present
evidence to prove his claim that his signature was forged in some of
the questioned supply contracts.
But the Sandiganbayan set aside
the arguments submitted by Marquez, noting that the five indictments
were based on the number of purchase contracts entered into by the
city government.
As an example, the court noted
that Purchase Order no. 02309 dated February 11, 1997, amounted to
P149,500—just P501 short of the amount that requires mandatory
public bidding—while another purchase order signed the following
day (February 12) was worth P100,000.
“Accused Marquez claimed that
there was no splitting of requisitions,” the Sandiganbayan said.
“We do not agree. It boggles the mind how the accused may justify
this as sound fiscal strategy. To our mind, this is nothing but
evidence of splitting and evasion of public bidding.”
On the question of forged
signatures, the court pointed out that Marquez did not raise the
same defense during preliminary investigation and even during an
inquiry by the Commission on Audit.
“He never pointed out which
documents or exhibits contained forged signatures. He also never
gave any reason or particular detail for his claim that the
signatures were forged. In fact, in his counter-affidavit, he
affirmed that ‘the purchase orders reflect the name and signatures
of Ofelia C. Caunan as purchasing officer, Joey Marquez as mayor and
Silvestre de Leon as municipal treasurer,’” the court said.
Associate Justice Ong also junked
the prayer for his inhibition despite allegation of conflict of
interest. Marquez submitted an affidavit executed by his former
wife, actress Alma Moreno—whose real name is Vanessa Lacsamana
Marquez—which stated that Ong’s wife is a creditor of the former
mayor.
Justice Ong wrote a separate
concurring opinion saying that the financial transaction existed
between Ong’s wife and Vanessa Marquez, not between the former and
the accused. Hence, the motion for his inhibition must fail.
Marquez is now out on bail. He
can appeal the Sandiganbayan decision before the Supreme Court.
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