Ex-mayor, 2 execs get jail terms for violating poll code Carla Gomez Inquirer
November 14, 2006
BACOLOD CITY -- Regional Trial Court Judge Felipe Banzon on Monday found a former mayor of Silay City and two other officials guilty of violating the Omnibus Election Code for disbursing public funds within the election ban period.
The judge sentenced to six years imprisonment former Silay City mayor Edwin Velez and former budget officer Salvador Ascalon Jr. for three counts of violation of the Omnibus Election Code. The other accused official, acting Silay City treasurer Arturo Siason got a four-year prison term. All three were stripped of their right to vote.
Banzon, presiding judge of the Silay RTC Branch 69, also disqualified Velez and Escalon from holding public office.
Velez said he would file a motion for reconsideration.
Councilor Ignacio Salmingo filed the complaint against Velez, then mayor of Silay City, Ascalon, Siason and former city accountant Eli Alminaza, now deceased, for the release of P400,000 in public funds for livelihood projects, on April 13 and 23, 1998, less than a month from the May 11, 1998 elections.
The Omnibus Election Code prohibits the release of public funds by any public official within 45 days before a regular election.
The recipients of the funds were the Hacienda Guinsang-an II Credit Cooperative, the Lopez Credit Cooperative and the Silay Consolidated Union of Market Vendors, all based in Silay City.
The respondents denied violating the Omnibus Election Code and maintained that they disbursed the funds for ongoing projects, which are exempted from the ban.
However, Banzon, in a 19-page decision, noted that the respondents "did not controvert nor contest the releases and disbursements of public funds."
The court also noted that Velez was signatory to the three memoranda of agreement with the recipients of the released public funds, while Siason, Ascalon and Alminaza certified to the availability of the funds.
"Unquestionably, the disbursements and releases of public funds under the memoranda of agreement were made within the 45-day period before the (May 11, 1998) elections," Banzon said.
He added that the request for exemption for the expenditures was not approved before the funds were released.
Under the provisions of the Local Government Code of 1991, Alminaza, Siason and Ascalon cannot escape criminal culpability, Banzon said.
Velez admitted that 20 percent of the City Development Fund had been allotted for the various livelihood projects of the different organizations and cooperatives in Silay after he was elected mayor of Silay in 1992.
Alminaza died before the judgment, so his criminal and civil liabilities were deemed extinguished, Banzon said.
The judge said he found Velez and Ascalon guilty, beyond reasonable doubt, of three counts of violation of the Omnibus Election Code.
He imposed on them the penalty of two years imprisonment for each count of violation, which they will serve at the jail of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Silay City.
While the court cleared Siason of any culpability in the disbursement of P300,000 to the Silay Consolidated Union of Market Vendors, Banzon found him guilty on two other counts involving other credit cooperatives and imposed on him a total of four years imprisonment.
