Police ‘can’t find’ ex-Aloguinsan mayor, 7 others Sandigan found guilty of graft

Ten days after the Sandiganbayan issued a warrant for their arrest, eight persons, including former Aloguinsan mayor Cynthia Moreno, still couldn’t be found.

That’s what the Aloguinsan Police Station said when it sent back the arrest warrant to the anti-graft court’s First Division, by registered mail.

SPO2 Carmelito Ornales, deputy chief, said that the police were told the seven others who had been convicted of graft along with the former mayor were attending a seminar or on leave. Ex-mayor Moreno was reportedly in Cebu City yesterday to attend her son’s wedding.

Convicted along with Moreno were Municipal Budget Officer Nonela Villegas, Agriculture Officer Marilyn Flordeliza, Assessor John Lim, Engineer Orven Nengasca, Civil Registrar Pepito Manguilimotan, and utility workers Gertrudes Ababon and Emilia Luz Celis.

The anti-graft office found them liable for buying P1 million worth of panels for the town hall in 2007 without a public bidding.

A SunStar Cebu team that visited Aloguinsan yesterday saw that some of the aluminum panels had been detached from the town hall’s facade.

Former Aloguinsan mayor Cynthia Moreno yesterday attended her son's wedding in Cebu City, while the seven other officials who were convicted for a graft case were reportedly either attending a seminar or were on-leave.

Ten days after the arrest warrant issued by the Sandiganbayan was not served, the Aloguinsan Police Station sent back the arrest warrant to the anti-graft office's First Division through registered mail as the convicts were no longer in the municipality.

SPO2 Carmelito Ornales, deputy chief and head of the station's intelligence office, said they received the copy of the arrest last Jan. 25.

“(We had been checking) from time to time their location. Until it reached 10 days, atong gi- return (we returned it),” Ornales said.

“On the tenth day after we received the arrest warrant, we asked the Municipality's Human Resource Management Office (HRMO) only to be told that they were on-leave. Before that, we went to their houses but they were not there,” he said in Cebuano.

Police asked for a certificate from the barangay captains where the convicts live as proof that they tried to serve the warrant.

Authorities believed that even before the arrest warrant was delivered to the town, the municipal officials had already left.

The Sandiganbayan directed the National Bureau of Investigation 7, the provincial police director and the Aloguinsan town police chief to enforce the arrest warrant after the court denied the respondents' petition for relief from judgment.

The anti-graft court convicted Moreno, Municipal Budget Officer Nonela Villegas, Municipal Agricultural Officer Marilyn Flordeliza, Municipal Assessor John Lim, Municipal Engineer Orven Nengasca, Municipal Civil Registrar Pepito Manguilimotan and utility workers Gertrudes Ababon and Emilia Luz Celis for violation of Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

The case stemmed from the complaint filed by Felimon Georsua Jr. after the officials purchased aluminum composite panels from Diamond Interior Industries Corp. worth over P1 million for the municipal hall without a proper bidding in 2007.

When SunStar Cebu visited Aloguinsan yesterday, the municipal hall was missing some of the aluminum composite panels.

Based on the information gathered by SunStar Cebu from the HRMO, Villegas, Flordeliza, Lim, Nengasca and Celis, who is now a Sangguniang Bayan member, are still active in service.

They are reportedly attending a seminar.

Manguilimotan, who was the town's bid and awards committee chair in 2007, retired in 2010, while Ababon left public service.

Moreno was not in Aloguinsan when Sun.Star Cebu visited her house yesterday.

According to her helper, she and her husband, incumbent Mayor Augustos Caesar were attending their son's wedding in the city.

Alfred Garing, 67, a neighbor of the Morenos, said the former mayor made a big difference in their town by helping promote eco-tourism sites.

He said the new municipal hall, public market and Alodome, the town's gym, were all built during her tenure.

“Our town is small, but the Morenos made a big difference. Their opponents have been using the case against the Morenos every election, but the people were not moved,” Garing said in Cebuano.

Reynaldo Trongcao, 39, a mason, recalled that when his wife died in 2015, Moreno shouldered the burial expenses and gave his family P10,000 as assistance.

“If someone needed help, the former mayor really helped,” Trongcao said in Cebuano.