The Office of the Ombudsman on Thursday publicized the highly anticipated reversal of the dismissal order against Sen. Joel Villanueva over the alleged misuse of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in 2008 when he was still a member of the House of Representatives.
The reversal of the dismissal was contained in a 10-page order signed in 2019 by then-Ombudsman Samuel Martires, who critics called out for not making it available to the public back then.
The current Ombudsman, Jesus Crispin Remulla, vowed to release the reversal of the dismissal order against Villanueva and even questioned the veracity of the screenshot of documents shown by the senator to the media to counter the earlier plan to enforce the dismissal order against him.
In the order, Martires said there was ‘no adequate evidence on record’ showing that Villanueva was actually involved in the alleged embezzlement of the P9.7 million of his PDAF, or popularly known as pork barrel funds.
Villanueva, then a CIBAC partylist representative, was charged with administrative and criminal charges over the alleged misuse of his discretionary public funds.
Administrative charges against Villanueva include grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, which would have led to his dismissal from public service, as well as his perpetual disqualification from holding public office ever.
For criminal charges, Villanueva was charged with malversation of public funds, malversation of public funds through falsification of public documents, and graft.
Martires said in his 2019 order that there was ‘cogent basis’ to grant the motion for consideration filed by Villanueva contesting the earlier findings by former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.
Martires said the signature of Villanueva that appeared on top of his name in the acceptance reports for the projects using his PDAF was ‘forged.’
‘In fact, there is no adequate evidence on record showing that Villanueva was actually involved in the embezzlement of the P9,700,000.00 in public funds,’ Martires said in his order he signed on Sept. 13, 2019.
For the criminal charges, Martires, in a separate order he signed on Oct. 18, 2019, said that investigators failed to prove the alleged conspiracy to embezzle the public funds between the public officials charged, including Villanueva, and the private respondents.
This resulted in the Office of the Ombudsman in 2019 granting Villanueva’s supplemental motion for reconsideration to contest his criminal charges. Martires also dismissed the charges against his co-accused.
This ultimately led to the reversal of the 2016 dismissal order against Villanueva over the criminal charges filed against him by the Office of the Ombudsman’s field investigators.
Villanueva filed his separate motions for reconsideration for his criminal and administrative charges. He contended that the Office of the Ombudsman ‘has no administrative jurisdiction’ over him since the alleged crime took place when he was a member of the House of Representatives.