The Fourth Division of the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan has affirmed its ruling finding Oriental Mindoro Governor Alfonso Umali Jr. and two former officials of the province guilty of graft in connection with the alleged anomalous awarding of P2.5-million loan agreement to a private individual in 1994.
The three were sentenced to a minimum of six years to a maximum of ten years of imprisonment.
In a 26-page resolution promulgated on July 20 but was only made available to the media on Tuesday, the Fourth Division affirmed its April 20, 2015 ruling finding Umali, former Oriental Mindoro Gov. Rodolfo Valencia and former Board Member Romualdo Bawasanta to have “conspired” with each other with “evident bad faith” and “manifest partiality” to illegally award a P2.5-million loan agreement to an engineer, Alfredo Atienza, in 1994.
The loan was supposed to finance the cost of repair, operation and maintenance of Atienza's vessel MV Ace intended to ply the Calapan-Batangas-Calapan sea route.
 |
| Oriental Mindoro and Marinduque have a common history |
“Indeed, one act without the other could not have been made possible the consummation of the transaction,” the Fourth Division said in its latest ruling penned by its chairman Associate Justice Jose Hernandez and concurred by its members Associate Justices Alex Quiroz and Maria Cristina Cornejo.
The Fourth Division maintained that the use of public funds for a private purpose like the repair of a privately-owned vessel is unlawful.
The court did not give weight on the argument of Umali, Valencia and Bawasanta that the funds were use for a public purpose, which, as Umali specifically claimed, was “to weaken the monopoly of the shipping business in the Calapan-Batangas-Calapan sea route” as well as “to promote fair competition”.
"Transport is a basic service and the Provincial Government of Oriental Mindoro simply fulfilled its mandate of providing services to its people when it addressed their problem regarding sea transport," Umali, who is also the treasurer of the administration’s Liberal Party (LP), said in his motion for reconsideration filed before the court in May.
The Fourth Division, however, pointed out that the accused failed to show proof that the people of Oriental Mindoro benefitted from the repair of Atienza’s vessel, while on the contrary, it was established that said repair has promoted Atienza’s business interest.
“Evidence, however, is necessary to determine as to whose favor did the use of the public fund go and the only verifiable proof is precisely the stated ‘use’ of the fund. It is not disputed that the amount was meant to finance the repair, operation and maintenance of Atienza’s vessel which is a private purpose,” the Fourth Division said.
“As it was meant to promote Atienza’s business interest, it was he who benefitted from the transaction,” the court added.
The court also noted that even before the loan agreement was awarded to Atienza, several officials in the province, including provincial auditors, have already questioned and challenged the transaction, and yet, the three accused “forced through” for completion of the project.
“Peculiar to this case is the fact that the loan transaction was challenged, objected to and questioned by proper officials (treasurers and auditors) from its inception. In this context, the sequence of the acts of the accused as set out in the Decision, shows how the accused forced through and worked for its completion despite the objections,” the Fourth Division said in its ruling. - GMA Network
