CEBU CITY -- The mayor and vice mayor of Tabuelan town, Northern Cebu are facing graft and corruption charges over the construction of a private wharf and a reclamation project in the town.
The Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City has endorsed to the Visayas Ombudsman the complaint of graft and corruption against Tabuelan Mayor Raul T. Gerona and Vice Mayor Rex Casiano T. Gerona.
The complainant is Junel B. Genita, who was a former bodyguard of the Geronas.
Genita had asked the Office of the Ombudsman for a fact-finding investigation on a Sanggunian resolution endorsing the application of then Vice Mayor Raul Gerona on a Special Agreement for Protected Areas (SAPA) dated July 9, 2014.
The complaint was filed on March 24, 2022, at the Ombudsman Central Office in Quezon City.
According to Genita, Vice Mayor Raul Gerona participated in the deliberation of the resolution which was a requirement for the construction of the private wharf and reclamation project. His brother, the then Mayor Rex Casiano Gerona approved the resolution.
The complainant alleged that the resolution was seen as “unlawful and irregular” because of the following reasons:
1. It allowed the then vice mayor Raul Gerona “to construct a private wharf/port in Barangay Tabunok, Tabuelan, Cebu although there is an existing wharf/port already in the same area 200-300 meters distance which was constructed as early as 2013.
2. The resolution was not approved by the Provincial Government of Cebu, but only by the Municipal Government of Tabuelan.
3. The area where the private wharf/port of Raul T. Gerona, then Vice-Mayor within Tanon Strait Protected Seascape per Presidential Proclamation No. 1234 dated May 27, 1998, and is not covered by any exemption for its use by a private individual,”
4. There was an illegal reclamation done by Raul T. Gerona undertaken within the protected area.
Genita also implicated other public officials who participated in the approval of the resolution, the official who issued the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), the official who issued a Permit to Construct Private Commercial Port, who signed the memorandum of agreement.
The Tabuelan mayor has maintained that there were no irregularities in the project, saying the complaint is “politically motivated.”
Gerona has said in media reports that legal documents needed for project were secured, including approvals from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Cebu Port Authority.