SAN SIMON, Pampanga – Today, Aug. 6, Mayor Abundio “JP” Punsalan Jr., is set to undergo inquest proceedings for graft and corruption in the wake of his arrest in an entrapment operation at a restaurant in Clark Freeport Zone yesterday, Aug. 5.
A post-operation report showed that the entrapment was conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation-Intelligence Service led by assistant director Noel C. Bocaling, with the assistance of the technical intelligence division, counter-terrorism division, criminal intelligence division, counter-intelligence division, intelligence research and analysis division, and the Pampanga District Office of the agency.
The operation reportedly stemmed from a complaint of Real Steel Corp., an investor in San Simon, alleging Punsalan was asking for P80 million – an initial P30 million, and the remaining P50 million in installment – in exchange for a local government resolution favorable to the company.
Punsalan and his alleged cohort, identified as a certain Dr. Ed Ryan Dimla alias Doctor Yang, were arrested in the act of receiving the initial P30 million payment.
Also taken into custody by the NBI was a security personnel of the mayor after he yielded firearms and live ammunitions which will be subjected to verification.
The NBI said Punsalan and Dimla will face charges for violation of RA 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act), among other violations of the Revised Penal Code.
Suspension veteran
The entrapment is only the latest in Punsalan’s brushes with RA 3019.
On June 24, 2024, the mayor was served with a 60-day preventive suspension order by the provincial government.
Signed by then-Gov. Dennis “Delta” Pineda, the order was based on Sangguniang Panlalawigan Resolution 8538 dated April 29, 2024 recommending suspension on the grounds of Administrative Case No. 01-2024 against Punsalan for alleged “gross neglect of duty, grave abuse of authority, gross misconduct in the performance of duty, and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019).”
The suspension was intended to ensure that the ongoing case against Punsalan “will remain unbiased and uninfluenced.”
In June 2023, Punsalan, along with Vice Mayor Romanoel “Dading” Santos and five members of the sangguniang bayan were suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman for “simple neglect of duty and simple misconduct” in the reclassification of a parcel of land in 2020.
On July 9, 2021, the Department of the Interior and Local Government served Punsalan a six-month suspension order after the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Pampanga found him and five other councilors guilty of “dishonesty, grave misconduct in office, gross negligence, gross dereliction of duty, and grave abuse of authority” over the purchase of that parcel of land near the municipal hall in 2020.
On Nov. 6, 2020, Governor Pineda ordered the two-month preventive suspension of Punsalan Jr. and councilors Romanoel Santos, Mark Macapagal, Irene Dagdag, Randell Bondoc, Archiebald Basilio, and Alekseyevich Vergara on the strength of SP Resolution No. 5529 arising from the same administrative case over the land purchase. Punto News Team
