By Kit Bagaipo
The Bohol Chronicle
A warrant for the arrest of Provincial Board Member Josil Trabajo and former Carmen mayor Pedro Budiongan has been issued by the Sandiganbayan in relation to graft and corruption charges filed by the Office of the Ombudsman.
Trabajo, who is currently under a 90-day preventive suspension due to another graft suit, is reportedly evading the warrant being served by the Carmen PNP, according to one of the complainants in the case, former town councilor Domingo Painagan.
Meanwhile, Budiongan was able to post a P30,000 bail last Monday through Regional Trial Court Branch 50 Presiding Judge Dionisio Calibo.
Painagan indicated that the Carmen police may also be blamed for delaying service of the board member's arrest warrant.
He told the Chronicle that the Sandiganbayan had to issue three times the arrest order for Budiongan and Trabajo.
In addition to the arrest warrant, a hold departure order was also issued by the anti-graft court last February 26.
The complainants of the graft suit, Valeriano Nadala Sr., Renato Delgado and Painagan, accused Budiongan and Trabajo, who served as mayor and vice mayor of Carmen, of conniving to implement a road project in 2003 with an intention to financially benefit from the undertaking.
An investigation by the Ombudsman found that the two former Carmen officials were the suppliers of the P1.5-million road project in barangays Vallehermoso, La Salvacion to Montesuerte by selling limestone (anapog) to the municipal government.
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