The Office of the Ombudsman has dismissed for lack of evidence the graft complaint against North Cotabato Governor Nancy Catamco.

In a resolution signed on January 27 but was only received by Catamco on Wednesday (Feb. 12), Ombudsman prosecutors Rayman Rafael and Tirso Vargas dismissed the complaint against Catamco (then named in the case as Nancy Perez) involving the alleged “fertilizer scam” in 2004.

“I feel so happy and humbled with the resolution of the Ombudsman. It’s a perfect advance Valentine’s gift. Thanks for all your prayers and support,” Catamco said in her Facebook post on Wednesday while busy attending to meetings and gatherings in quake-hit areas in North Cotabato.

Catamco, then a private business executive in 2004, was the wife of businessman Pompey Perez of Perezbros Company, supplier of agricultural products, where she used to be the general manager.

Aside from Catamco and Perez–her erstwhile husband–also charged in the 2004 alleged “fertilizer fund scam” were Mayor Orville Ano-os Fua of Lazi, Siquijor; Municipal Accountant Ana Marie Sumalpong-Monte, Municipal Treasurer Rose Marie Villacampa Tomogsoc, Municipal Budget Officer Iva Ypil Marchan, Municipal Engineer Nutalio Bungcawel Jumayan, Private Secretary Sue Agnes Castillon, and Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator Teodoro Jumadla, Jr.

Catamco and the other respondents were accused of violating Section (c) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in a transaction the supplier and the government of Lazi, Siquijor entered into in 2004 under Criminal Case No. SB 190CRM-0100 and OMB C-C-16-0381.

In its Sept. 26, 2019 resolution, the Sandiganbayan 4th Division ordered the preliminary investigation of the case.

“The only evidence which connects the accused-respondent Perez (Catamco) to the registered partners of Perzebros and her being named as the General Manager thereof in the Articles of Partnership,” the January 27 decision reads.

It further said that aside from the articles of partnership, there was “no other proof on record that even tends to show that Catamco personally participated in the transaction, or otherwise authorized the participation of Perzebros.”

“The circumstances that the Articles of Partnership named Perez as a partner and its General Manager alone does not suffice as a prima facie evidence to support the finding that a probable cause exists against her, much less that she conspired with here co-respondents,” the resolution added. (PNA)