The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the filing of Informations for Malversation and violation of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act No. 3019) versus Jesus Nieves and Marilou Tolosa, former officials of the Department of Education Regional Office IX in Pagadian City.
Based on the complaint of OMB-Mindanao’s Field Investigation Unit, it was shown that in August 2007, Tolosa requested the Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB) to close an account denominated as the Belgian Integrated Agrarian Reform Support Programme (BIARSP). The BIARSP account was kept for a special project funded by the government of Belgium. Upon closure of the account, the remaining balance of P157.93 was transferred to the Deped Regional Office Trust Account. Subsequently, on 29 November 2007, upon authority of Nieves, PVB debited the amount of P6,164,424.23 from the Deped Trust Account and transferred the money to its closed BIARSP account. On 03 December 2007, the entire amount of P6.1million was withdrawn by respondents from its supposedly closed BIARSP account.
In June 2012, the Commission on Audit issued a Notice of Disallowance against this withdrawal as they were made by respondents without any supporting documents.
No counter-affidavits were submitted by respondents.
“As public officials in the discharge of their official functions, both acted with evident bad faith resulting to an injury to the government in the amount of P6,164,424.43. Respondents failed to explain how such public funds were spent and utilized,” stated the Ombudsman in its Resolution.