Ecija town officials charged with graft

The mayor, vice mayor and two incumbent and former councilors of Cabiao, Nueva Ecija were slapped with graft and other criminal as well as administrative charges Wednesday, before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly “siphoning” millions of public funds to a local gasoline supplier who is a member of the officials’ family.

In a 54-page complaint, incumbent town Councilor Julito “Jumar” Wycoco and indie film director Noel Montano, who is known in social media as “El Tarik,” charged Mayor Ramil B. Rivera, Vice Mayor Marcelino Simbillo, Councilor Rav Kevin Rivera, former Sangguniang Kabataan Federation president Leonard James Galang and businesswoman Ma. Luisa S. Galang for violating Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees and the Local Government Code of 1991.

Wycoco, the brother of the late police general and National Bureau of Investigation director Reynaldo Wycoco, and Montano, also a social media content producer, also sought the filing of administrative cases against the respondent public officials.

Montano, it will be recalled, filed planting of evidence charges against top police officials of Cabiao last March after he was unlawfully arrested and detained for allegedly keeping a grenade at his mother’s house. He accused the police officers involved of orchestrating the faulty police operation while “acting on the behest of Mayor Rivera.”

Onerous

At the center of the latest controversy is Mrs. Galang, the owner and proprietor of M.S. GALANG’s Gasoline Station located in Barangay San Roque, also in Cabiao who, the complainants claimed, cornered millions of pesos in an “onerous” deal with her relatives.

“Respondent public officials willfully, criminally and with evident bad faith, gave unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference to a private party by unlawfully conspiring to enrich their direct relative, Ma. Luisa S. Galang, for the supply of petroleum products (gas and diesel) to the municipal government without the benefit of a public bidding and in a manner that is onerous and grossly disadvantageous to the government,” the joint complaint read.

Records show that Mayor Rivera is the father of Councilor Rav Kevin Rivera, who is the son-in-law of businesswoman Mrs. Galang. Vice Mayor Simbillo, on the other hand, is the brother or Ma. Luisa while former SK Federation president Leonard James is the businesswoman’s son.

“Respondents are related by blood and by affinity and consanguinity. Undoubtedly, they are a FAMILY… We discovered this onerous deal or arrangement in a letter dated 27 December 2022 sent by Mayor Rivera to Vice Mayor Simbillo and his son, Councilor Rav Kevin Rivera, the incumbent chairman of the Committee on Finance of the Sangguniang Bayan, requesting the inclusion in the Agenda of the SB ‘a resolution approving the payment of unsettled gas and oil, electricity, water, waste disposal bills and other various expenses with an estimated amount of Five Million Pesos (P5,000,000) for Calendar Year 2022,’” the complaint said.

According to Wycoco and Montano, it was only recently that they found out to their “utter shock and disbelief,” that one of the payees was M.S. GALANG Gasoline Station for “P1,309,555.10.”