Incident happened in 2022
TACLOBAN CITY — The Office of the Ombudsman has indicted Mayor Gina Merilo of Tanauan, Leyte for graft following her hiring of two losing candidates within a prohibited one-year period.
The nine-page decision, signed by Ombudsman Samuel Martires on September 30, was only released on Monday, November 4.
Mayor Merilo faces charges for violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019) after hiring Quintin Octa Jr. and Reynalda Almaden, who both ran unsuccessfully in the 2022 elections, on July 1, 2022.
Octa, her former running mate, was appointed as a project engineer despite being a dentist by profession, while Almaden, a retired individual, was hired as a mobile nurse for the municipality.
The complaint was filed by Tanauan resident Mildred Lopez, who questioned the appointments due to the one-year ban on hiring losing candidates.
Mayor Merilo defended her actions, claiming good faith in the appointments.
She explained that, as a first-term mayor, she had consulted the town’s human resource officer, who, in turn, sought the guidance of the regional Civil Service Commission and Department of Interior and Local Government offices, both of which reportedly supported the appointments.
Merilo further clarified that both positions were not regular plantilla posts but merely job order assignments.
The Ombudsman, however, ruled that Merilo’s actions showed “manifest partiality” in favoring Octa and Almaden by hiring them on a job order basis to bypass the one-year ban.
“Respondent acted with manifest partiality when she hired Octa and Almaden… [with] the furtive design and intent to circumvent the constitutional and statutory provisions prohibiting the hiring of losing candidates one year after the immediate preceding elections,” the anti-graft court said.
The Ombudsman concluded by finding probable cause for the indictment, ordering that the corresponding information be filed in court.
Reached through her staff, Mayor Merilo stated that she has not yet received the Ombudsman’s complaint but intends to respond once she does by consulting her lawyers. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
