FOR failing to return a laptop on time, Dumanjug Vice Mayor Efren Gica will face trial on charges of malversation of public property.
The Ombudsman-Visayas said it found grounds to charge Gica for failing to return a municipal government-owned MacBook worth P52,640.
The laptop was issued to him during his tenure as municipal councilor in September 2007.
When his term ended d on June 30, 2010, he was asked by the town’s former property custodian Corazon De La Cruz to return the laptop, but Gica failed to do so.
The Ombudsman-Visayas’s Field Investigation Office (FIO) said it was only on May 9, 2014 when Gica returned the laptop to the new property custodian, Visitacion Abelo.
The Ombudsman said Gica is “criminally liable” for his failure to promptly return the laptop and that the eventual return of the government-owned property does not extinguish liability.
In his counter-affidavit, Gica claimed that the laptop had always been with the legislative building of the municipality.
He said it was only when he became the acting mayor of Dumanjug, upon Mayor Nelson Garcia’s suspension, that he asked the property custodian to acknowledge the turnover of the property.
Gica said the property custodian refused to acknowledge receipt of the item allegedly upon Mayor Garcia’s order.
He said he threatened to file a complaint against the custodian, prompting the latter to receive the laptop.
He also denied having received the 2010 demand letter for him to return the laptop.
The anti-graft office, however, deemed it proper to let the court decide whether or not Gica is telling the truth.
“While respondent denied that he received such a letter, this issue may however be threshed out during trial,” said graft investigation and prosecution officer Ma. Corazon Vergara-Naraja in her resolution approved by Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Paul Elmer Clemente.
Naraja said Gica’s claim that the laptop never left the premises of the legislative building was not supported with even just a single evidence which could have substantiated his defense.
She said the eventual return of the laptop does not also save Gica from criminal liability as stated by the Supreme Court in a similar case.
Under article 217 of the Revised Penal Code, any person found guilty of malversation of public property shall be perpetually disqualified from holding a position in public service.
If the amount involved exceeds P22,000, the accused shall also face an imprisonment of 17 to 20 years or even up to 40 years. Gica has sought the anti-graft office’s reconsideration but his plea was denied.