Multiple raps vs Lamitan City vice mayor junked

The Sandiganbayan ordered the dismissal of 24 pending charges against a former vice mayor of Lamitan City, Basilan, citing “vexatious, capricious and oppressive” delay in the investigation of the Office of the Ombudsman.

The Sandiganbayan First Division upheld the motion to dismiss filed by accused former Lamitan City Vice Mayor Arleigh Eisma concerning 12 counts of graft, six counts of violation of RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, and six counts of violation of Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code.

The anti-graft court stated that it is not disputed that Eisma was a public officer at the time; that he acted with “manifest partiality and evident bad faith” when he allowed the purchase of fuel from his own Shell Station for vehicles used by the Office of the Vice Mayor and the Sangguniang Panlungsod without public bidding; and that the transactions caused undue injury to the city government while “giving unwarranted benefits, advantage and preference to his own gas station.”

But the Ombudsman, according to the court ruling, failed to observe its own rules to terminate the process of preliminary investigation within 10 days after the last pleading was filed.

“In these cases, such process dragged on for three years and five months. The protracted investigation …constitutes inordinate delay on the part of the Office of the Ombudsman thereby effectively removing from it the authority to file …and to pursue the instant criminal cases,” it ruled.

Eisma was alleged to have favored his own gas station business after it became the supplier of fuel requirements of his own office and the city council of which he was the presiding officer covering the periods from October 2011 to January 2012 and from May to November 2012.

The procurement in the accused gas station amounted to P1.97 million.

Eisma, for his part, alleged the charges were politically-motivated having been filed months before the 2013 elections wherein he ran for city mayor but lost to the wife of the complainant, former Mayor Roderick Furigay.

He maintained the purchase was approved by Furigay whom he claimed was the primary authority being the head of the procuring entity.