We wonder if they can also take down the so-called “bigger fish.”
“The Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) has announced the conviction of Alejandro Villapando, the former mayor of San Vicente, Palawan for buying bags of cement worth PHP247,500 for a road project that did not exist,” reports Jun Ramirez in Tempo.
According to the 18-page decision penned by Justice Alexander Gesmundo, the Sandiganbayan found Alejandro Villapando guilty of graft and corruption. He’s been sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in jail, disqualified from holding public office in the future, and ordered to return the malversed funds.
The report noted: “The anti-graft court found that in January 2000, Villapando and Cipriano Sr. released PHP247,500 to Apollo Trading for the purchase of 1,500 bags of Portland cement for concreting of a road in Sitio Panindigan, San Vicente. However, investigation conducted by the Commission on Audit (CoA) showed there was no delivery of cement and the road building project was non-existing.”
Villapando’s co-accused, Rodrigo Cipriano Sr., municipal treasurer, was dismissed because he died.
Photo from the Office of the Ombudsman’s website
