Ombudsman junks plea over transceiver deal

The Ombudsman has upheld its earlier indictment of former Agriculture Undersecretary Eduardo Gongona for graft over the alleged irregularities in the P2.1-billion contract for vessel monitoring system transceivers in 2018.

In a 13-page order approved by Ombudsman Samuel Martires on Oct. 2 but only made public on Sunday, the graft buster junked the plea by Gongona, former national director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, contesting his graft indictment in May.

This was mainly because Gongona “did not introduce any newly discovered evidence” and that the merits of the case were best threshed out in court.