FOR refusing to issue a permit for a P23.49-million building to be constructed at the Amang Rodriguez Medical Center, the Office of the Ombudsman has filed graft charges against Marikina City engineer Alfonso Paz Espiritu.

Graft investigator and prosecution officer 1 Sylvia Severo said Espiritu deliberately refused to approve the application for the permit in September 2000, blocking work on a three-story dormitory of the hospital on Sumulong Highway, Sto. Ni?o.

The case was based on a complaint filed by contractor Archie Huevos of A.H. Construction and General Services.

In his counter-affidavit, Espiritu noted that Huevos has been blacklisted by then Mayor Bayani Fernando for non-compliance with an order to demolish a building he erected allegedly in violation of architectural and construction plans.

He said AH Construction was ill qualified to do the hospital project worth P23.49 million because the firm had a ?category B license? that was rated only for contracts valued at P3 million to P15 million.

Siding with Espiritu, graft investigator Fe Palmiano-Salvador, who did the preliminary investigation, recommended dismissal of the complaint.

But the findings were overturned by Assistant Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol, who was upheld by Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro.

Apostol and Casimiro said Espiritu?s withholding the permit was not justified because the applicant was the Medical Center and not the contractor.

But it was Huevos ostensibly?not the hospital?who filed the complaint against the building official. Macon Ramos Araneta