Sandigan junks long-delayed case vs ex-Pampanga mayor

Former Mexico, Pampanga Mayor Teddy Tumang and his co-accused, William Colis, were acquitted of 29 counts of graft and two counts of malversation of public funds due to undue delay in the Ombudsman’s investigation.

This decision was rendered by the Sandiganbayan First Division in a resolution dated 10 June this year.

“The preliminary investigation lasted six years, four months, and 12 days, counted from the time of the filing of the complaint to the filing of the information with the court,” the resolution stated.

Tumang and Colis were accused of showing “manifest partiality” in their procurement of construction materials from Buyu Trading and Construction between 2009 and 2010. Colis is the owner of Buyu.

Graft investigators flagged the transactions as “highly irregular,” citing Tumang’s use of “shopping,” an alternative procurement method, instead of the mandatory public bidding process.

They also noted that the transactions exceeded the P50,000 limit set for “shopping” under the Government Procurement Reform Act (Republic Act 9184).

The accused argued that the investigation took almost 17 years to reach a conclusion from the time the alleged actions occurred in 2007, violating their constitutional right to a speedy disposition of cases.

The Ombudsman attributed the delay to the Covid-19 pandemic, which limited the operations of government offices and courts. However, the Sandiganbayan rejected this reasoning.

“The court cannot give weight to the prosecution’s blanket invocation of the Covid-19 pandemic. While the court may take judicial notice of the pandemic… it is inaccurate to say that the entire machinery of government [was] forced to a complete standstill for more than three years,” the court ruled.

The Sandiganbayan also pointed out that the duration of the preliminary investigation exceeded the allowable periods under the Rules of Court and Administrative Order 1, Series of 2020.

“In all, the court finds the time that it took the Ombudsman to resolve the accused’s motion for reconsideration to be unjustified and the entire preliminary investigation proceedings of the case against the accused have been attended by inordinate delay,” the anti-graft court concluded.

The ruling followed a similar decision in 2022, when the Sandiganbayan dismissed 29 cases against Tumang on the same grounds of a prolonged investigation.