MANILA – A former high-ranking official from the now-defunct Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has been handed a sentence of up to 112 years in prison after being convicted on 16 counts of corruption related to the procurement of office supplies in 2010. The Sandiganbayan’s Sixth Division, in a detailed 50-page ruling issued on February 6, found former ARMM Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional secretary Sultan Usman Tantao Sarangani guilty of colluding with the then-regional accountant Nanayon Dibaratun to procure office supplies and equipment from two companies, Iftizah Ayezah Enterprises and Ashley Ventures, both owned by Dibaratun.
The transactions, which took place between March and May 2010, involved splitting the procurement into 16 separate deals with the two suppliers. These deals included repeated purchases of various items such as equipment, furniture, computers, office supplies, photocopying machines, and printers. One notable transaction involved computers costing PHP596,985, which was above the legal limit for procurement through ‘shopping’.
The court highlighted that the division of purchases into multiple transactions over a short period was a deliberate attempt to bypass the competitive bidding process, thereby unfairly favoring Iftizah Ayezah Enterprises and Ashley Ventures. The court stated that had a competitive bidding process been followed, other suppliers could have competed for the contracts, and there would have been no assurance that the contracts would have gone to the two favored companies.
The ruling emphasized that Sarangani and Dibaratun displayed clear bias towards the two companies. Sarangani was found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of violating Section 3 of Republic Act 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and was sentenced to up to seven years for each of the 16 counts. Additionally, he was permanently barred from holding any public office.
The court also noted that Dibaratun would have faced similar convictions had she not passed away before the conclusion of the case.