Ten remaining graft charges against Masbate Gov. Antonio T. Kho and other provincial officials have been withdrawn by the complainant in an affidavit of desistance after the first five charges had been dismissed outright by the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB).

In his affidavit, Ruben D. Fuentes, a media practitioner in Masbate, told the OMB that he relied on incomplete information when he filed the 15 complaints before the OMB last year.

In dismissing five of the 15 complaints, the OMB said: “The basis of the charges against the respondents (Kho and the other officials) appears to be a portion of the Commission on Audit-Annual Audit Report (COA-AAR) for the years ended Dec. 31, 2021 and 2022.”

The OMB said that the “COA-AARs are still subject to the agency’s actions within sixty (60) days from receipt thereof as provided under Section 89 of the General Provisions of Republic Act No. 11465.”

Thus, the OMB ruled that the complaints appear “premature and cannot be decided upon by the Office of the Ombudsman.”

“The common reason given for the outright dismissal is that the complaint is premature because the basis, which are the findings and observations contained in the Management Letter of Annual Audit Report of the Commission on Audit, are not final as they are still subject to the agency’s comments or compliance with COA’s recommendations,” Fuentes said in his affidavit.

He also said: “As I pondered on the outright dismissal of the aforecited complaints, I realized that indeed the COA issuances are not final until a complete appreciation of the facts and circumstances which surround each project. For this reason, no acts of anomalies or corruption could be inferred based on the COA issuances.”

Kho and 10 other provincial officials were charged by Fuentes over alleged anomalous disbursement of public funds.

But the OMB dismissed outright five of the 10 complaints as it ruled that the conclusions in the charges were drawn merely from audit reports that hinge on technical matters and may still be subjected to clarification through discussions between the COA and the public officers.

After admitting that there were no anomalous acts that can be inferred in his complaints, Fuentes executed last March 14 an affidavit of desistance in the remaining 10 charges. The affidavit was sworn to before a graft investigation and prosecution officer of the OMB.

Fuentes, himself, sought the outright dismissal of his remaining 10 complaints against Kho who was re-elected governor during the May 2022 national and local elections.

In his affidavit, Fuentes also said: “I apologize to Gov. Antonio Kho and the other officials of Masbate provincial government for filing these baseless and malicious cases. I am deeply sorry and I regret whatever embarrassment these complaints may have caused them and their reputation in the eyes of their constituents.”

Published reports stated that after the COA audits in 2021 and 2022, the provincial government of Masbate was recognized by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) for reducing poverty incidence by 11.3 percent from 2018 to 2023. The PSA lauded the province as the "best performer" in the region with its massive infrastructure projects and more accessible trade routes as contributing factors.

The same reports stated that for peace and order efforts, Masbate earned P500 million support funds from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process (OPAPP) and the Payapa at Masagang Pamayanan (PAMANA), and P4 billion worth of rural infrastructure projects from the Philippine Rural Development Program.