LA CASTELLANA Mayor Rhumyla Nicor-Mangilimutan defended her father, former mayor Alberto Aguilar Nicor Jr. against the three graft charges filed against him before the Sandiganbayan due to the alleged anomalous issuance of mayor’s permits to himself and his wife Noemi in 2013.
Mangilimutan said the news that came out on national dailies about the cases against her parents were based on wrong information because the case against her mother Noemi was already dismissed.
“It’s good faith on the part of my father when he issued a mayor’s permit to his own business and that of my mother,” she said.
The mayor said the hollow blocks business of her mother “was a business put up by the cooperative and funded by the Provincial Government.”
The case was already dismissed with finality, she added.
As for the case of her father, Mangilimutan said “there were no public funds involved and he has no transaction with the Municipal Government when he was the incumbent mayor.”
“Maybe for my father it was good faith to issue a permit to his business to make it legal,” she said. But the “law is harsh so we have to face the consequences.”
“With the track record of my father as an undefeated mayor of our town for nine years and the legacy he left in La Castellana, I hope the Sandiganbayan can see this,” Manglimutan said.
She said the complaint against her father was filed by “anonymous” complainants at the municipal hall.
In the charge sheet filed by Assistant Special Prosecutor III Jorge Espinal, Nicor was accused of violating Section 3(h) of Republic Act 3019, also known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
On January 24, 2013, he took advantage of his position by issuing a mayor’s permit to his wife, Noeme Nicor, allowing her to operate a hollow blocks business, Espinal said.
This act intervened with his official capacity as mayor, since approving the permit of a business in which he had direct financial or pecuniary interest is detrimental to public interest, he added.
He repeated the same actions on January 25 and February 25 when he granted himself and his business partner the permit to engage in a trucking business, Espinal said.
Nicor’s bail bond has been set at P90,000, with P30,000 for each graft charge.
