FALSE ACCUSATION

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BY GLENDA S. TAYONA
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February 9, 2018
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‘Gov’t employees wrongly charged need protection’

ILOILO City – Who is going to protect government career officers and ordinary employees falsely accused of wrongdoing?

While waiting for an order from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) reinstating him, former Iloilo police provincial director Senior Superintendent Cornelio Salinas urged the Office of the Ombudsman to not only prosecute erring government officials.

It must also protect innocent government employees from trumped up charges and or false accusations, he stressed.

The Office of the Ombudsman should have more lawyers to expedite the resolution of complaints filed before it, said Salinas, citing his case which dragged for some two years.

The Court of Appeals (CA) recently declared as wrongful the dismissal of Salinas and ordered his immediate reinstatement.

It reversed a 2015 Office of the Ombudsman ruling dismissing Salinas and two other police officers for grave misconduct in relation to the procurement of Philippine National Police rubber boats in 2009. That year, Salinas was a member of the PNP Maritime Group’s Bids and Awards Committee (MG-BAC) that approved the emergency purchase of coastal crafts following a series of typhoons.

“Dugangan ila budget para magdamo lawyers nila to protect career officers and ordinary employees of government falsely accused of being corrupt by capricious complainants,” said Salinas.

He was dismissed from the service by the Ombudsman on June 2, 2015. But according to the CA in a decision released just this month, the emergency procurement of rubber boats worth P5 million was justified and the MG-BAC in fact “conducted the negotiated procurement with utmost transparency and in accordance with the rules and (National Police Commission) specifications.”

“Take our case. We never caused injury to the government but look, kadugay ihatag sang hustisya,” said Salinas.

MG-BAC awarded the rubber boat contract to Four Petals Trading (FPT).

“It is…quite perplexing to charge the members of the MG-BAC of grave misconduct when the records reveal otherwise,” according to the CA.

Salinas considered the CA decision a “partial victory.”

“Ang pinakanami sina DILG order reinstating us,” said Salinas.

Charged with Salinas for the rubber boat purchases and also cleared by the CA were Superintendent Nepomuceno Corpus Jr. and Superintendent Michel Amos Filart./PN
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