MANILA- The Office of the Ombudsman has indicted Southern Leyte Governor Damian Mercado before the Sandiganbayan for allegedly falsifying documents he submitted in relation to his candidacy.

In a statement Friday, the Ombudsman said Mercado failed to submit a correct and complete Personal Data Sheet (PDS) and the Elective Local Official's Profile Directory (Data Capture Form).

The Ombudsman said documents showed that Mercado claimed to be a civil engineer by profession and that he finished elementary at the Maasin Central School from 1964 to 1971.

It said Mercado did not state the years when he graduated from the schools he had listed down on his 2010 PDS.

"Mercado's failure to fill up the spaces for the year when he graduated (if graduated) constitutes concealment of information in violation of his undertaking in his PDS to state the true, correct and complete statement pursuant to the provisions of pertinent laws, rules and regulations," Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said in a resolution.

The Ombudsman said Mercado's claims that he could have been mistaken for a civil engineer as he was a contractor, and his incomplete entries in the ELOPD and PDS "engender the well-founded belief that the governor withheld and concealed the truth and falsified his entries."

Morales also addressed Mercado's claim that the case should be dismissed due to alleged delays in the investigation, saying "the fact-finding case or case build-up phase of the prosecutorial process of this Office is not part of preliminary investigation."