The Office of the Ombudsman has dismissed a criminal and administrative complaint against Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and another Cebu City official over the use of public funds and alleged dishonesty.
Former councilor Michael Ralota filed the complaint against Rama and budget officer Nelfa Briones in 2012.
Ralota, who was the former Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) president, claimed that the city officials took portions of a P5 million financial assistance to ABC to spend for gasoline and oil for vehicles assigned to different barangays, even without the knowledge of ABC.
The Ombudsman order dated June 9, 2014 said the the criminal charge for illegal use of public funds under Art. 220 of the Revised Penal Code, against Rama and Briones was “dismissed for lack of probable case.”
The City Legal Office only received it this week.
The administrative complaint for dishonesty was also dismissed “for lack of substantial evidence.”
In his complaint, Ralota claimed that without the ABC’s knowledge, Rama and Briones took P1.25 million each on January 10, April 2 and July 2 and another P750,000 on September 6, 2012 from the P5 million appropriation for the ABC.
In their counter-affidavits, Rama invoked his power to augment funds under the Local Government Code.
He said that it was less than a month already before the fourth quarter but the ABC has not yet presented their proposals to specific projects for the P5 million allocation since they had not yet liquidated their assistance from the previous year.
Rama said so the allocation was already considered savings.