Ex-Mt. Province mayor gets 10 years for graft

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- The Sandiganbayan has sentenced the former mayor of Barlig town of this province to a maximum of 10 years in prison for graft.    

Crispin Fias-Ilon was found guilty of soliciting P45,000 from a supplier in exchange for the release of a check worth P318,682.68, representing the local government’s payment for medicine and medical supplies that it procured.  

Witnesses testified that Fias-Ilon demanded the amount from the Blessed St. John Pharmaceutical and General Merchandise.

Fias-Ilon was caught receiving the money in an entrapment in a restaurant in Baguio City on June 16, 2006.

“The prosecution sufficiently showed that accused received the money or commission,” the anti-graft court stated in its ruling.

“The purchase of medicine and medical supplies is a transaction by the municipality and not a personal deal by the mayor,” the court said. “It is very suspicious that the mayor would be the one to personally hand the check to the supplier.”