Cebu town vice mayor charged over unauthorized bonus, hiring wife

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Ombudsman has filed two separate graft charges against Cebu’s Borbon town Vice Mayor Noel Dotillos over unauthorized release of P570,000 anniversary bonus and the hiring of his wife when he was still a mayor.

State prosecutors on Tuesday said they filed the cases before the Cebu Regional Trial Court in Bogo City, with a recommended bail of P90,000 for each charge.

READ: Ombudsman files graft vs Cebu town mayor, vice mayor, 11 others

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The first graft case stemmed from Dotillo’s release of an anniversary bonus to municipal employees in 2019 without an appropriation from the Sangguniang Bayan.

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In their motion for reconsideration lodged in the antifraft body, Dotillo and municipal budget officer Teresita Cabahug explained in the Office of the Ombudsman that the absence of an appropriation for the bonus was merely a procedural lapse and did not automatically amount to graft.

“With no appropriation to support the subject disbursement, the Municipality of Borbon suffered undue injury in the amount of P570,000.00 as this sum was never supposed to be disbursed as an anniversary bonus,”  the Ombudsman ruling said as it rejected their MR to affirm their earlier ruling.

“Simply put, the municipal government had no budget for an anniversary bonus, but respondents-movants authorized its grant anyway,” it also said.

State prosecutors also said Dotillos did not seek prior authorization from Borbon town’s Sangguniang Bayan (SB) when he entered into a contract of service (COS) with his wife, municipal health officer (MHO) Dr. Corazon Dotillos, in 2024.

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Dr. Dotillos has already retired in 2021, but her husband said there are no physicians available or willing to work as MHO in Borbon town, an explanation which state prosecutors deemed as “self-serving.”

According to the antigraft body, Dotillos exhibited manifest partiality or evident bad faith in entering into a COS with his doctor-wife.

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“Respondent Noel exhibited manifest partiality and/or evident bad faith when he renewed his wife’s COS on 15 April 2024 without securing the corresponding SB authorization,” the ruling said.

Inquirer is trying to reach out to vice mayor Dotillos for comment. We will publish his side once available. /jpv

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