G.R. No. 254125 - ROGELIM A. CABRALES AND NOE CABRIDO GOZALO, VS. THE OMBUDSMAN, NAHUM E. DOSDOS, PASCUAL R. PONGASE II, AND RAUL P. LLAGAS,***.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

Accordingly, the BAC recommended the award of the procurement to Ivan Carr; and the Municipality proceeded to buy the motor grader from Ivan Carr for the price of P9,450,000.00. [8] Claiming that the transaction was attended by irregularities, private respondents Nahum E. Dosdos, Pascual R. Pongase II, and Raul P. Llagas, filed a complaint [9] with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against the following officials of the Municipality: Villamero, Municipal Budget Officer/Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) Chairperson Roberto M. Sayson, Municipal Engineer/BAC Vice Chairperson Loreto L. Peñaranda, Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator/BAC Member Rogelim A. Cabrales (Cabrales), Municipal Assessor/BAC Member Wilfredo B. David, Sangguniang Bayan Member/Alternate BAC Chairperson Noe C. Gozalo (Gozalo), Administrative Aide II/Alternate BAC Member Ricardo T. Solis, Civil Defense Officer III/Alternate BAC Member Jovito S. Ondiano, and Administrative Aide III/Technical Working Group Member Roger G. Tabuada. [10] The NBI investigation found that the motor grader was overpriced, and that the aforementioned public officers rigged the bidding process therefor. Villamero allegedly earned P1,500,000.00 from the rigged bidding, which he offered to share with the Sangguniang Bayan members. [11] The NBI further found the following irregularities in the procurement of the motor grader: 1) Villamero specified the brand Chenggong in the Purchase Request; 2) the Municipality could not have possibly posted the Invitation to Bid (ITB) and other pertinent bidding documents in the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) website because it was not registered therewith; 3) one of the bidders, Eagle, is not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); 4) the winning bidder, Ivan Carr, uses a residential house as its business address; and 5) the President/Chief Executive Officer of Ivan Carr is an agent of the other bidder, Eagle. [12] On June 22, 2016, the NBI referred the findings of its investigation to the OMB. The administrative aspect of the case was docketed as OMB-M-A-16-0262, and the involved municipal officials were ordered to submit counter-affidavits. [13] The OMB Ruling The OMB found Cabrales and Gozalo, among others, guilty of grave misconduct. They were ordered dismissed from government service, with the accessory penalties of cancellation of civil service eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits, and perpetual disqualification from government service. [14] The OMB also found probable cause to charge Cabrales, Gozalo, and their correspondents with violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act No. 3019. [15] The OMB found that the ITB for the grader procurement was not published in a newspaper of general nationwide circulation, as required by Section 21.2.1(a) of the 2009 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations, [16] Part A, of Republic Act No. 9184 [17] (2009 GPRA IRR): since the ITB was published in the