THREE former Department of Finance officials and private defendant have been acquitted by Sandiganbayan of graft and estafa through falsification of public documents in relation to the allegedly questionable issuance of tax credit certificates (TCCs).
Acquitted were DOF One Stop Shop Inter-Agency Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center (OSS Center) tax specialist Asuncion Magdaet and evaluators Charmelle Ricoter and Cherry Gomez, as well as Filstar corporate secretary Grace Chingkoe.
The anti-graft court’s Second Division said the evidence presented against the DOF personnel were not enough to convict them of the alleged anomalous processing and approval of P16.49 million TCCs in favor of Filstar Textile Industrial Corp.
“While accused Magdaet, Ricoter, and Gomez admitted to being public officials during the time relevant to the instant criminal cases, their respective acts were devoid of any taint of criminal intent which would make them accountable,” it said.
In the case of Chingkoe, the court said she was only a nominee in Filstar and was not the beneficial owner of any of its stocks.
The case stemmed from the issuance of six TCCs for Filstar between 1995 and 1997.
Among the documents that Filstar submitted to get the TCCs were those involving the purchase of cotton fibers from FLB International Fiber Corp. and bills of lading for finished dyed cotton yarn on board the Seabridge Container Line.
But graft investigators alleged that the purchases were bogus because FLB could not have supplied Filstar with raw materials, considering that it never became operational.
As for Seabridge Container Line, the investigators said it stopped operating under this name more than 10 years before its transaction with Filstar, and thus there was no valid bill of lading.
But the Sandiganbayan said the prosecution was unable to establish conspiracy between DOF officials Magdaet, Ricoter and Gomez, and private defendant Chingkoe to defraud the government.
“The mere fact that Magdaet, Gomez, and Ricoter signed the checklist and evaluation report relative to the application of Filstar to tax credit would not justify the conclusion that they are conspirators,” it said.
It said the DOF personnel’s tasks were just ministerial and did not involve their exercise of discretion.
It also said the timeline for processing TCC applications was too short to for the proper conduct of evaluation, verification, and in-depth examination of the volumes of documents.
“The problem lies more on the dysfunctional system rather than on the person tasked to carry out the gargantuan task,” it said.
Also charged in the case were former DOF Undersecretary Antonio Belicena who died before the verdict was handed down, and OSS Center deputy director Uldarico Andutan, who is at large.
