G.R. No. 175006 - BELEN A. SALVACION, VS. SANDIGANBAYAN (FIFTH DIVISION) AND LEO H. MANLAPAS.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, in view of the foregoing, it is hereby recommended that the instant Motion for Reconsideration filed by respondent be denied for lack of merit. Accordingly, the Review Resolution dated 07 February 2005 which recommended that an Information for violation of Sec. 3(f) of RA 3019 be filed against the latter stands. In affirming the Review Resolution , the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon reasoned that: It could not have possibly escaped respondent's attention that complainant has sought the payment of her terminal leave pay considering that he signed the corresponding disbursement voucher certifying that the same is necessary and lawful and even approved its payment amounting to P162,291.46 x x x. Having presented said document for his signature, it should have prompted him to verify first if there is no impediment in the payment of such claim of complainant. And it appears that indeed there was none, otherwise he could not have signed the same. But now, he is now justifying his refusal of not giving complainant her terminal leave pay because the amount of P7,564.38 of her collection is missing. To this, we are not convinced because, aside from the fact that the same is uncorroborated, the purported acts of complainant of usurping the functions of the revenue collectors and misappropriating the amount of P7,564.38 transpired immediately on the month after complainant has retired. If the same is factual, immediate action thereon could have been taken and that it should have been relayed at once to complainant and not after a year. With respect to the supposed newly discovered evidence submitted by respondent, we find that the photocopied receipts issued by the municipality only confirms the fact that certain amounts were collected but not to the fact that it was complainant who collected the same and not remit it to the coffers of the municipality. Finally, with respect to the alleged invalidity of the certification made by Adoptante, it was as early as December 2002 that respondent was apprised of the latter's relief as OIC Municipal Treasurer. As such, he should have called complainant's attention of such fact right away and not raised it at this point in time had he be (sic) sincere in acting on the claim of complainant. On 29 April 2005, bearing the approval of Dennis M. Villa-Ignacio, Special Prosecutor, Office of the Ombudsman, an Information [16] was filed with the Sandiganbayan, and raffled to its Fifth Division, charging respondent Manlapas with having violated Section 3, paragraph (f) of Republic Act No. 3019, as amended, with the accusatory portion of the same reading as follows: That on December 31, 2002, and for sometime prior or subsequent thereto, in the Municipality of Baleno, Masbate, Philippines, and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, the above-named accused, LEO H. MANLAPAS, a high ranking public officer, being then the Mayor of Baleno, Masbate, while in the performance of his official administrativ