G.R. No. 165125 - CESAR T. VILLANUEVA, PEDRO S. SANTOS, AND ROY C. SORIANO, VS. MAYOR FELIX V. OPLE AND VICE-MAYOR JOSEFINA R. CONTRERAS.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, in view of the foregoing, it is respectfully recommended that the present case lodged against respondents Felix V. Ople and Josefina R. Contreras, Mayor and Vice Mayor, respectively of the Municipality of Hagonoy, Bulacan, be DISMISSED for lack of probable cause." [4] The assailed Resolution denied petitioners' Motion for Reconsideration. The Facts On December 8, 2003, Petitioners Cesar T. Villanueva, Pedro S. Santos, and Roy C. Soriano filed a Joint Affidavit-Complaint [5] before the Office of the Ombudsman. They charged incumbent Mayor Felix V. Ople and Vice-Mayor Josefina R. Contreras of Hagonoy, Bulacan, of violation of Section 3(e) [6] of RA No. 3019 or the "Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act," [7] in relation to Sections 305-(a), [8] 318 [9] and 351 [10] of the Local Government Code (LGC). Petitioners alleged that the annual budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 of the Municipality of Hagonoy had been submitted by Mayor Ople -- through Vice-Mayor Contreras -- to the Sangguniang Bayan of Hagonoy, only on June 11, 2003, instead of on October 16 of the preceding year, as mandated by Section 318, paragraph 2 of Book II, Title V, Chapter III of the LGC. They added that Vice-Mayor Contreras had failed to refer the budget to the chief legal counsel of the municipality; and that, together with the other incumbent members of the Sangguniang Bayan, she had instead sought the approval of the alleged "Illegal Annual Budget for 2003." [11] On the theory that no enabling resolution had been enacted authorizing expenditures of the municipality to be based on the annual budget for the preceding year, petitioners claimed that the disbursement of public funds during the period January 1, 2003 to July 11, 2003 [12] and/or August 27, 2003 [13] had been illegal. They therefore prayed that respondents be held liable for the illegal disbursements done in the discharge of official functions, through evident bad faith and/or gross negligence that had caused undue injury to the Municipality of Hagonoy, Bulacan. [14] Respondents filed their respective Counter-Affidavits, both dated February 27, 2004, and practically identical in form and substance. [15] They stated that the proposed budget had actually been submitted on June 26, 2003, and not June 11, 2003. It was submitted only on that date, because Commission on Audit (COA) Circular No. 2002-2003, otherwise known as the "New Government Accounting System," had mandated the revision of accounting procedures. [16] In compliance with that Circular, the municipality had to review and modify almost all of its financial transactions beginning January 1, 2002. In order to prepare a feasible budget, they allegedly had to know the locality's financial position for the prior year, data on which had to come from the accounting department. [17] According to respondents, the Sangguniang Bayan of Hagonoy and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Bulacan eventually passed and approved the proposed budget, whose effectivity date