Gamu, Isabela mayor convicted of usurpation
>> Monday, June 10, 2019
GAMU,
Isabela -- Reelected Mayor Nestor Uy here was sentenced to up to six months in
prison for preventing the hiring of four municipal employees to be assigned in
the office of the vice mayor in 2013.
In 53-page decision promulgated on May
17, the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division found Uy guilty of usurpation of
official functions under Article 177 of the Revised Penal Code.
With his decision to surrender and post
bail, the court reduced Uy’s prison term to a minimum of two months to a
maximum of six months.
Filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in
2016, the case stemmed from Uy’s refusal to approve appointment papers of four
people to be hired as legislative staff members of the Sangguniang Bayan headed
by Fernando Cumigad, the vice mayor at the time.
The ombudsman said Uy “unlawfully and
feloniously” withheld and disapproved the appointment papers of Dante Martinez
as legislative aide, Jasmine Rose Martinez as clerk as well as Silverio Balagan
and Michael Balagan as drivers.
The Sandiganbayan noted that under
Section 445 of the Local Government Code, the authority to appoint the
legislative staff of the Sangguniang Bayan belongs to the vice mayor, who
also serves as the council’s presiding officer.
The anti-graft court found no merit on
Uy’s defense that he disapproved the appointments because the municipal
government have public lawyers who could serve as legal consultants of the town
council.
The court pointed out that the appointees
would not handle legal matters.
“This obvious desperate attempt of the
accused to find justification for his disapproval of the appointments made by
Cumigad is pathetic,” the court said.
Uy’s admission that he disapproved
Cumigad’s appointments, regardless of the reasons, was enough to convict him of
the charged crime, it added.
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