Former mayor in Zambales gets jail term for graft

A former municipal mayor in Zambales province was meted with 40 years imprisonment after being found guilty of malversation of public funds that stemmed from ghost projects during his term in office.

The Sandiganbayan found former Castillejos town mayor Teofilo Pantaleon Jr. guilty of two counts of malversation acts through falsification of public documents.

Aside from reclusion perpetua, the graft court also meted Pantaleon with perpetual disqualification from holding public office and a total fine of P201,706. The court also ordered him to return the government funds that he misused.

Court records revealed that Pataleon committed corrupt act when he forged the documents bearing an amount of P201,706 in favor of La Paz Construction for the repairs of the drainage system in his town’s public market. The fictitious contract was discovered in December 1996.

Another falsified contract was discovered through a check on November 1997 bearing the amount of P169,440 for the supposed improvement of the barangay roads connecting the villages of Casagatan-Looc, Nagbayan-Macupit and San Agustin proper-Mandamquez.

The graft complaints came when the owner of the LPC, Tiu Ken Suan, said he did not enter into such contracts with the local government units, while citing that he did not received any payment for the enumerated projects.

The graft court also discovered that there were no drainage repairs that happened in 1996, and no road projects that were conducted in the mentioned villages in 1997. philstar.com