Mayor suspended over marble transport fees

First posted 03:43am (Mla time) Aug 04, 2006
By Carmela ReyesInquirer
http://news.inq7.net/archive_article/index.php?ver=1&index=1&story_id=13393

Editor's Note: Published on Page A19 of the August 4, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

SAN MIGUEL, BULACAN—Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez has suspended Mayor Edmundo Jose Buencamino of this town for six months on charges of abuse of authority filed against him by the head of a mining company operating at the Biak-na-Bato mountain range.
Gutierrez ordered Buencamino’s suspension on April 24. A copy of the order was received by registered mail on Wednesday by Constantino Pascual, president and chair of the board of Rosemoor Mining and Development Corp. (RMDC).

The Inquirer tried but failed to reach Buencamino for comment.

Pascual filed in August 2004 complaints of grave misconduct, abuse of authority and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service against Buencamino for allegedly getting from his firm at least P12 million in pass-way fees for more than a year.

According to Pascual, the amount did not go to the municipal treasury. He claimed there were no original receipts issued to RMDC and its contractors.

Since Buencamino became mayor in 2004, the operations of his firm and his contractors had been disrupted, he said. He said the mayor and his men collected a P1,000 fee from each truck carrying marble blocks or quarry materials.

Buencamino had earlier denied that the receipts he issued to RMDC and its contractors were fake.

But Director Emilio Gonzalez of the office of the Ombudsman and Victor Fernandez, deputy Ombudsman for Luzon, found that the receipts were not signed by the municipal treasurer.
“This only shows that the official receipts … were just manufactured because these were not signed by Municipal Treasurer Marciano Cruz,” Gutierrez said in her order.

Buencamino said he ordered the collection of the fees based on a municipal ordinance requiring trucks loaded with marble blocks or quarry materials passing through the roads of San Miguel to pay the fees.

But Pascual said the ordinance had been voided by a provincial board resolution. Buencamino, however, said he was not aware of the board resolution and that he collected the fees “in good faith.”