ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider 11 persons, 8 of them Cebu City officials, charged in P200-M malversation of public funds

11 persons, 8 of them Cebu City officials, charged in P200-M malversation of public funds

Published Nov 30, 2025 12:01 pm  |  Updated Nov 30, 2025 01:08 pm
Eleven persons, eight of them officials of the Cebu City local government, have been charged with non-bailable offense of malversation of public funds involving P200 million paid to a garbage collector in 2021.
Charged by the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) before the Sandiganbayan were former city administrator Floro Quimque Casas Jr.; Department of Public Services head John Jigo Gaston Dacua; Garbage, Collection and Disposal officer-in-charge Grace M. Luardo-Silva; inspection officer Allen Omlero Ceballos; inspectors Romelito Asinjo Datan and Mark Abarquez Ugbinar; city accountant Jerome Visarra Ornopia; and acting city treasurer Mare Vae Fernandez Reyes.
Also charged were three private individuals of contractor DOCAST Construction/JJ&J Construction and General Supply -- incorporator and authorized managing officer Jayra Angelic Maningo Ruiz-Javier, officer-in charge and operations manager John David Sevilles Javier, and encoder Erika May S. Quino.
All of them were also charged with graft in violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act (RA) No. 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Bail recommended for the graft charge was P90,000 for each accused.
Under the criminal charge sheets, those charged were accused of having allowed DOCAST/JJ&J to receive the aggregate amount of P239,728,280.62 in the collection and disposal of the city’s garbage to the dumpsite owned by the ARN Central Waste Management, Inc.
The anti-graft court was told that DOCAST/JJ&J was allowed to charge a rate of P1,800 per one ton of garbage instead of P600 per ton.
Last July, the OMB ordered the indictment of the 11 persons as well as the dismissal of the former city officials and employees from the service, cancellation of their civil service eligibility, forfeiture of their retirement benefits, disqualification from holding public office, and ban from taking civil service exams.
The cases stemmed from the complaints filed before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in 2021 by then Cebu City vice mayor Michael Rama.
The NBI’s probe showed that ARN charged only P600 per ton and issued Truck Scale Slips (TSS) for each delivery.
The company also allowed city and barangay-owned trucks to dump waste at the site, charging the same rate of P600 per ton through DOCAST/JJ&J, it said.
It also said that DOCAST/JJ&J failed to separate the tonnage delivered by its own trucks from those delivered by government trucks in its billing to the city.
It added that DOCAST/JJ&J billed the entire tonnage at P1,800 per ton and made it appear that only its own trucks handled the deliveries.
On July 8, 2021, ARN banned DOCAST/JJ&J and the city trucks from using its facility due to unpaid bills from Jan. 29 to July 7.
However, DOCAST/JJ&J continued to bill the city government until Aug. 10, 2021 using Truck Scale Slips that were later found to be falsified.
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.