Former Butuan mayor faces graft charges

FORMER Butuan City Mayor Ferdinand Amante Jr. is facing graft cases before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the alleged illegal disbursement of P15.48 million for acquisition of a defective machine.

The case stemmed from the approval of Amante to release the amount from November 2012 to June 2013 in favor of World Medical Relief- Philippine National Business and Coordination Center, Inc. of Panabo City ( WMR Panabo) for the cost, import duties, transportation and storage fees of one 2003 Model, used Mobile Siemens Biograph Duo Positron Emission Tomography-Computerized Tomography ( PET- CT) Scan Machine.

The Ombudsman said the payment was caused in favor of WMR Panabo despite it being a charitable donation from the World Medical Relief, Inc. of Michigan, USA.

Amante allegedly “fail[ ed] to ensure that the said machine was functional before allowing its importation into the Philippines in June 2013,” which supposed failure allegedly caused the return of the machine to the donor because “it was nonoperational and unusable.”

In a separate charge sheet, the Ombudsman accused Amante of violation of the anti- graft law as he “knew fully well that the expected/ computed incidental expense s of its acquisition was pegged at a lower amount of P1,512,500 only.”

The Ombudsman recommended P60,000 bail for Amante.