Ex-Palawan gov Reyes guilty of Malampaya fund mess –Sandiganbayan

The Sandiganbayan has found former Palawan governor Mario Joel Reyes and his provincial planning and development coordinator Samuel Madamba II guilty of 11 counts of graft in connection with misuse of some P1.53 billion in royalties from the Malampaya gas field in 2009. 

In a 625-page decision, the anti-graft court sentenced Reyes and Madamba to six to 10 years in prison per graft conviction or a total of at least 66 years of jail time.

The P1.53 billion worth of Malampaya gas field royalties were allegedly spent on school buildings, the San Vicente Airport Development Project, road projects, solar home system, and a day care center.

“There is manifest partiality when accused Reyes, as HoPE (Head of Procuring Entity), improperly evaluated the bid proposals, leading to the award of numerous or overlapping contracts to a single contractor with one set of key personnel,” the anti-graft court said. 

“Accused Reyes approved contracts that awarded multiple projects to a single contractor while being fully aware that these projects required the contractor’s presence at specific times that conflicted with other projects. This act indicates a clear, notorious, or plain inclination or predilection to favor one side or one person rather than another, which the Anti-Graft Law categorizes and punishes as manifest partiality,” it added.

Based on documentary evidence presented before them, including the contracts awarded to the same contractor for overlapping projects and the Commission on Audit report, the Sandiganbayan ruled that there was “a clear violation of contractual obligations.”

“For one, it is logically impossible for the same key personnel to be involved in all these projects at once, given their different locations which are far apart from each other. Although the towns and areas belong to only one province (Palawan), the Court takes judicial notice that these towns are not really geographically located in one single island,” it said.

“Additionally, the contractors failed to update or submit revised lists of key personnel for the overlapping projects,” the anti-graft court said. 

The Sandiganbayan also said that Reyes and Madamba, who was then BAC secretary, failed to publicly post the bidding for the subject government contracts due to “neglect and utter lack of effort.” 

While Reyes posted bail in these cases, the court said the ex-Palawan governor failed to appear or present any evidence to dispute the evidence presented by the prosecution. 

“His (Reyes) failure to be present and adduce evidence could indeed be considered as a waiver of his constitutional right to defend himself and confront the witnesses against him,” the Sandiganbayan said.

Madamba, for his part, defended himself by arguing that he only failed to properly register the invitation to bid on the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) because of a former contractual employee’s failure to provide a password and to the poor internet connection in Palawan before 2010.

The Sandiganbayan, however, says this defense rings hollow absent evidence.

“Not a shred of evidence was offered to prove these allegations. Thus, the basic rule applies that, a mere allegation is not evidence and is not equivalent to proof,” it said.

“Besides, there were available alternative options provided by the Government Procurement Policy Board to ensure mandatory posting, such as contacting the PhilGEPS division for assistance, fax the documents for posting, or utilizing internet cafes. This noncompliance with these posting requirements led to limited participation in the bidding process, as evidenced by the COA Audit Report which showed only one bidder for 65 projects and two bidders for 139 projects,” it added. —AOL, GMA Integrated News