Former Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco, Jr. who chairs the Capitol’s Office of Governance Accountability and Review (OGAR) has assured the public that their fact-finding efforts on alleged corruption in the provincial government will yield more results that could implicate top officials including former Governor Art Yap.
Evasco, in a press briefing on Friday, announced that the OGAR will be filing charges against a Capitol employee for alleged corrupt practices, but did not name the individual pending the latter’s notification on the allegations against him.
This will be the first set of cases to be filed by the OGAR six months after it was created by Gov. Aris Aumentado to look into anomalous transactions under the previous and current administrations, but Evasco noted that this was just the beginning of what will be a series of exposes.
“Ang pangutana man gud kanunay sa gawas, ‘kanusa man ma file-an si Governor Arthur Yap og kaso?’ Hulat lang mo, mo abot lagi ta na kay kami diri wala mi mangutulog sa among responsibilidad,” said Evasco in a press briefing on Friday.
According to Evasco, evidence gathered by the OGAR show that “grave” offenses were committed by the previous administration.
“Sultihan mo namo kung unsa ang among [OGAR] kumbati dinhi. Sultihan pud mo namo na grabe ang mga kaso na gi atubang,” said Evasco.
However, he stressed that it would take time for the OGAR to complete and submit their findings to ensure that the complaints filed will withstand scrutiny and lead to convictions.
“Ato pa ning utingkayon kay dili mani ingon na file-an nato og kaso unya pagkahuman magpakaulaw lang mi na ‘kaning OGAR pataka laman og file og kaso pero walay basehan.’ Mao ng lalumon gyud nato ni tong pag utingkay,” said Evasco.
The former Cabinet Secretary said that after the filing of administrative charges against the unnamed Capitol employee, separate complaints will immediately be filed against another individual.
The OGAR has options to file the administrative cases before the Office of the Ombudsman or the Civil Service Commission but they chose to file it before the provincial government for swift action on the matter.
The administrative complaints will particularly be filed before the Office of the Governor which may then form an investigative body that will determine the veracity of the allegations and recommend to Aumentado to whether impose sanctions or drop the charges.
In the same press briefing, former Regional Trial Court judge Suceso Arcamo said they opted to file administrative charges first but they will also file criminal complaints.
He noted that filing administrative cases does not prevent them from filing criminal complaints later even if these involve the same issues.
“Unahon ning administrative case then probably kung unsay recommendation pwede na namo isunod ang kaso sa anti-graft kay naa na may basehan,” Arcamo said.