OMBUDS DISMISSES RAPS VS EX BUCLOC, ABRA TOWN MAYOR, EXES

November 1, 2024 Headlines

BAGUIO CITY

The Office of the Ombudsman has dismissed raps against former Bucloc town mayor Glybel Bayongan Cardenas and two other town executives. The anti-graft body found not enough evidence to indict former mayor and then
Municipal Engineer and Treasurer-designate Aris Blancaflor Balsita and then Municipal Accountant Mariano de Guzman Bragas III from complaints by the Commission on Audit (COA) for Failure of Accountable Officer to Render
Accounts and Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of Service, Grave Misconduct and Gross Neglect of Duty. Cardenas was mayor of Bucloc from 2019 to 2022.

The complaint by COA was based from the agency’s Sworn Narrative Report of on April 2022 and it evaluation
report of on September 2022, that pertained to financial statements, monthly check disbursement journals and general journals among others covering years 2019-2020. The COA claimed that the respondents did not comply to
the obligations of submitting necessary justifications on the municipality’s operational expenditures. It also sued the former mayor liable for failure of ensuring that her subordinates comply with the rules, laws and regulations.

In appreciating former mayor Cardenas and the two other former town executives, the Ombudsman found no
probable cause to indict the trio. The anti-graft body also found no substantial evidence that Cardenas and the two other town executives committed Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of Service, Grave Misconduct and Gross Neglect of Duty.

Artemio A. Dumlao/ABN