Pasig mayor shrugs off graft complaints

Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto on Monday downplayed the graft charges against him and two other local government officials which was filed at the Office of the Ombudsman by a private citizen.

In a message, the Pasig mayor said that the complaint does not mean anything as “anyone can file a complaint.”

Earlier, Sotto — along with Pasig City Business Permit and Licensing Department (BPLD) head Melanie de Mesa and City Administrator Jeronimo Manzanero — were slapped with graft and corruption charges at the Ombudsman for allegedly giving a 100 percent tax discount to a telecommunications company.

The complaint — filed by a certain Ethelmart Austria Cruz dated 7 August 2024 — alleged that Sotto and the other two officials violated Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019), Section 4 of RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees as well as committed grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service and dishonesty.

They were accused of giving preference to Converge ICT Solutions Inc. for giving it a 100 percent tax discount despite “knowing fully well” that the latter misdeclared the actual size of its office and the number of its employees in its tax declaration.

According to Cruz, Converge, which initially stated that its office space was 5 square meters and employed only four people, actually employs 1,901 and occupies four floors of office space with a total area of 9037.46 meters and claimed that it was confirmed by no less than the BPLD itself through an inspection in July and September 2022.

The also complaint disclosed an alleged tax order of payment issued on 18 October 2022, where Converge was assessed a total amount of P3,670,340.11, with a total surcharge of P447,106.77 and interest amounting to P979,570.27 representing deficiencies and delinquencies in the payment of fees and licenses.

Cruz alleged that Converge later sought the Pasig local government assistance to waive the penalties.

Notwithstanding the alleged irregularities, Cruz claimed that Sotto allegedly granted a full tax discount in favor of Converge, resulting in Pasig City incurring a P1,426,477.04 revenue loss.

“In light of their actions, it is obvious that respondents clearly and definitely discharge their duties with the highest degree of excellence and professionalism, intelligence and skill when they issued the said tax discount to Converge,” said the complainant.