Carcar City mayor faces admin, criminal complaint filed at Ombudsman
This stemmed from livestock market auction issue
CEBU CITY, Philippines — A complaint was filed against Carcar City Mayor Mario Patricio “Patrick” Barcenas before the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas.
The complaint was filed on April 14, 2025. The cases were both administrative and criminal complaints.
Barcenas, for his part, said that he had not yet received a copy of the complaint.
He added that he welcomed the complaint and he would answer this immediately after he received a copy of this.
Barcenas also said he believed that the complaint was politically motivated.
Among the complainants of the case were Vice Mayor Efren Quijano, councilors Victor Ian Del Rosario, Lorena Mae Tabora, former Sanguguniang Kabataan Federation President Laurence King Quijano, and former Association of Barangay Council (ABC) President Anthony John Apura.
The complaint stemmed from Barcenas’s wanting to revoke/repeal the authority that was given by the city council to the former mayor regarding the construction of a livestock auction market due to sanitary and environmental concerns.
The complaint said that on September 13, 2022, during the session of the city council, Barcenas barged in and ordered the people inside the session hall to go out except the councilors.
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During this, Barcenas allegedly informed the councilors that he received an offer of 10 percent from the P149 million project as a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).The complaint added that the mayor no longer mentioned the revocation of the project, instead, he discussed its benefits if the construction of the Livestock Auction Market were pursued.
A few days after the incident, the complainants saw and heard about a video posted on social media that went viral regarding the incident.
“Ang iyang ihatag nato mao na, 10% sa whole 149 kay dili man 150, 10% ang iyang ikahatag nato. So mao nay akong gikuan ninyo. Ok ba mo ni-ana? Ako willing ko modawat ana kay ako man nang SOP,” the complaint read.
(What will be given to us is this, 10 percent of the whole 149 because it is not 150, 10 percent is what will be given to us. So that is what I did for you. Are you okay with that? Me, I am willing to accept that because that is my SOP.)
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Due to this, the complainants believed that the respondent had violated several administrative charges such as Conduct Prejudicial to the best interest of service, grave misconduct in office, and betrayal of public trust.They also believed that he was liable for several criminal charges such as Direct bribery (sec 210, Revised Penal Code, as amended), Indirect Bribery (Sec 211, Revised Penal Code, as amended), and Corrupt Practices (Paragraphs a, b and h of Section 3 of Republic Act No. 3019).
The complainants also asked the Ombudsman to preventively suspend Barcenas to prevent him from influencing the investigation.
Barcenas, for his part, also vehemently denied allegations against him. He also said that the voice on the viral media post was not his.
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