Ex-PNP official faces raps for declaring wrong wife

A former high-ranking police official was charged by the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly making false declarations in his Police Personal Profile (PPP), which was used as the basis for his promotion.

Filed before the antigraft court Sandiganbayan on Aug. 25, the charges against former Senior Superintendent Antonio Gumiran Jr. involve two counts of perjury under Article 183 of the Revised Penal Code.

Gumiran, a former deputy director for operations and officer-in-charge for administration at the Eastern Police District, was accused of making false declarations in his PPPs executed on July 16, 2012 and Feb. 11, 2014.

Graft investigation and prosecution officer Marie Grace Pulayan-Roldan, of the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Military and Other Law Enforcement Offices, said that in both instances, Gumiran stated in his PPP that a certain Evangeline Adaoag-Gumiran was his spouse.

The ombudsman said such declarations were false, “as accused very well knew” that on Aug. 18, 2010, his marriage to Evangeline had already been declared “null and void ab

initio (from the beginning).” The ombudsman said Gumiran has been married to Mary Ann Undajare-Gumiran since Sept. 5, 2011, “thereby making a willful and deliberate assertion of falsehood in a sworn statement made for a legal purpose as a requirement for his promotion to the next higher rank, to the damage and prejudice of the public interest.”

Listed by the ombudsman as among its witnesses against Gumiran was his wife, Mary Ann.

The ombudsman recommended to the Sandiganbayan to set Gumiran’s bail at P12,000. The ombudsman did not say who filed the initial complaint against Gumiran.