The Office of the Ombudsman has found probable cause to charge Southern Leyte governor Damian Mercado with falsification of public documents for allegedly failing to state true and complete information in his identification documents.
According to the Ombudsman, Mercado failed to submit a complete and truthful Personal Data Sheet (PDS) and Elective Local Official's Profile Directory (ELOPD).
Mercado claimed in these documents that he was a civil engineer by profession and completed grade school at Maasin Central School from 1964 to 1971.
But the Ombudsman also noted that Mercado failed to state in his 2010 PDS the years of his graduation from the educational institutions he supposedly studied in.
“Mercado’s failure to fill up the spaces for the year when he graduated (if graduated) constitutes concealment of information in violation of his undertaking in his PDS to state the true, correct and complete statement pursuant to the provisions of pertinent laws, rules and regulations," the Ombudsman said in a resolution.
The Ombudsman said Mercado's failure to explain the observations regarding the years he finished his elementary education and his college degree, his "evasive" claim that he may be mistaken for a civil engineer because he was a contractor, and the incomplete entries in his PDS and ELOPD "all endanger the well-founded belief that the governor withheld and concealed the truth and falsified his entries."
Mercado argued that the complaint against him must be dismissed due to the Ombudsman's inordinate delay in its investigation.
The Ombudsman, however, dismissed Mercado's defense and explained that “the fact-finding case or case build-up phase of the prosecutorial process of this Office is not part of preliminary investigation.”
According to Article 171 (4) of the Revised Penal Code, a public official has committed falsification when he or she, by taking advantage of his or her position, makes an untruthful statement in narrating the facts in a document.
Post a Comment
Post a Comment