Barangay Officials Mull Graft Charges Vs Cordova Mayor

Two barangay officials of Ibabao, Cordova town want to file charges against Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy for graft and corruption before the office of the Ombudsman-Visayas for allegedly withholding the barangay’s real property tax shares since last year.

“Most likely graft and corruption. Study-han pa hinuon namo… Di nila ihatag ang real property tax (RPT), what’s the reason? There is no reason na supposedly ila jud na’ng i-release. Mura’g gihimo man nila og personal,” said lawyer Jo Feliz dela Calzada, legal counsel of Ibabao barangay captain Chito Bentazal and barangay treasurer Junbert Bentulan.

The conflict springs from two unreleased checks of Barangay Ibabao amounting to P22,460.40 (for the months of June to October last year) and P59,275.1 (for November and December 2013 and January 2014), which Sitoy reportedly withheld citing that Bentulan is not the legally-appointed barangay treasurer.

“We are not withholding the shares in realty taxes of Barangay Ibabao…We are waiting for the legally appointed barangay treasurer to come to our office to collect the checks,” said Sitoy in his letter-reply to Bentazal dated March 25.

Bentazal made an inquiry to Sitoy early this year asking why they could still not get their checks when Cordova was supposed to release the RPT shares to the barangays quarterly.

“Nagsige na ko og balik-balik sa munisipyo, wa man gyud nila gi-release. Matud pa sa akong mga kaila didto, naa pa kuno ni mayor ang among cheke,” said Bentulan.

In his letter-reply, Sitoy does not acknowledge Bentulan as the barangay treasurer, despite the fact that he has held the position since 2010. Sitoy quoted Sec. 395 of the Local Government Code, which states that “the barangay treasurer shall be appointed by the punong barangay with the concurrence of the majority of all the sangguniang barangay members.”

Sitoy said even if three of the six councilmen who were present in the last December 1, 2013 session concurred the appointment of Bentulan and with Bentazal, being a presiding officer was there to break the tie and vote in favor of the appointment, it still does not constitute the majority of the council as there are supposed to be at least four votes excluding the presiding officer’s.

The mayor said Bentazal’s vote is invalid as he is the appointing and “not the concurring authority.”

Sitoy cited in his letter the case he filed before the Ombudsman against Bentulan and Bentazal for alleged violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in relation to the said appointment.

Bentulan, who believes that Sitoy’s move was politically motivated, said that since Sitoy has already raised the issue to the Ombudsman, as he said in his letter, he should have waited for the anti-graft body to resolve his concern before considering him as an illegal appointee.

He said what Sitoy is doing is depriving the people of Barangay Ibabao some of the basic services which should have been earmarked from the unreleased funds.

Bentulan said the barangay only gets about P2 million of annual income including the internal revenue allotment (IRA), and this includes the RPT.

Bentulan said he and Bentazal are waiting for the advice of their legal counsels as to their next step, but said it’s assured that they will file criminal charges against Sitoy and four Ibabao barangay councilmen (Feliciano Ando-Dinoy, Joself Goc-ong Mejia, Marcial Baguio-Amoin and Robert Entac-Catubag) for allegedly conniving with the mayor.

The four barangay officials executed a joint-affidavit supporting Sitoy’s claims and alleged that the barangay, under the administration of Bentazal, had failed to implement several projects which were already funded by the local government.

Bentulan said records could prove that the projects are either completed or still on-going. “Klaro lang gyud na sila’ng namulitika,” he said.

Dinoy, Mejia, Amoin and Catubag ran with Sherie Mae Sitoy in October 2013 barangay elections. Sherie Mae Sitoy is the wife of Mayor Sitoy’s nephew. Sherie Mae Sitoy lost to Bentazal.

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