Ex-Parañaque mayor Joey Marquez convicted of graft

Actor posts P150,000 bail

By Tetch Torres
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 03:49pm (Mla time) 08/30/2007


(UPDATE 4) MANILA, Philippines -- Actor and ex-Parañaque City mayor Joey Marquez has posted P150,000 bail after he and three others were convicted of graft by the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court, according to a report on local television.

At the same time, the report said Marquez has filed a motion for reconsideration.

Marquez’s bail is on top of the P90,000 bond he posted before the start of the trial by the anti-graft court.

Under the law, the court has the discretion to allow a convicted individual to post an additional bond for his provisional liberty while his case is on appeal.

Marquez, Silvestre de Leon, city treasurer; Flocerida Babida, budget officer; and Ofelia Cuanan, general services chief have been sentenced from 6-10 years imprisonment by the Sandiganbayan fourth division which had ruled on the case.

The anti-graft court fourth division headed by Associate Justice Gregory Ong said Marquez and the other officials had violated Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft Law particularly Section 3 (g) for "entering, on behalf of the government, into any contract or transaction manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the same, whether or not the public officer profited or will profit thereby."

The Commission on Audit filed the case after it discovered that the broomsticks that were purchased from January 1996 to September 1997 by the city government under Marquez’s term were overpriced by P462,708 and did not go through the regular bidding procedures.

Marquez served as mayor from July 1995 to 1998 when Parañaque was then a municipality and from 1998 to June 30, 2004 when it became a city.

Originally posted at 9:26am