THE Sandiganbayan has found a former official of the Technology Research Center guilty of graft and malversation for the misuse of the pork barrel funds of the late Compostela Valley Rep. Prospero Amatong.
The anti-graft court’s Second Division also found four officials of the non-government organization Philippine Environmental and Ecological Development Association Inc. (PEEDAI) liable for graft, said the Abogado.ph
The court sentenced TRC Legislative Liaison Officer Rosalinda Lacsamana to 12 to 18 years’ imprisonment for malversation of public funds and ordered her to pay a P10M fine equivalent to the amount malversed.
It also sentenced her and PEEDAI officials Butch Canoy, Vincent Jaudian, Mercy Cabig and Alfredo Soriano to six to 10 years’ imprisonment for graft, and ordered them to indemnify the government P10 million.
But it acquitted TRC Deputy Director General Dennis Cunanan and corporate support services group manager Francisco Figura for the prosecution’s failure to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
It archived the case against TRC Director General Antonio Ortiz as the latter is at large, and issued a warrant for his arrest.
The case stemmed from the release to PEEDAI of Amatong’s priority development assistance funds, coursed through TRC, without public bidding and despite the NGO’s doubtful credentials.
The P10 million released to the group was supposed to be used for livelihood and development projects.
The Sandiganbayan said that PEEDAI was “unilaterally chosen and endorsed” as implementor of Amatong’s livelihood programs in his district without the benefit of an appropriation law or the conduct of a public bidding.
The TRC also did not vet PEEDAI’s qualification when this was supposed to be its responsibility, it said. Lacsamana’s role in recommending the NGO through which the PDAF funds would be coursed cannot be denied, it added.
It said she authorized the release of the PDAF funds even without the mandatory and properly notarized memorandum of agreement.
She also did not question the activities in the work and financial plan submitted to the TRC, which were livelihood and entrepreneurial projects, even if these were far off from the purpose of PEEDAI, which is the re-greening of denuded forests.
“Lacsamana, however, chose to ignore such red flag. By perfunctorily going through the motions of her task she lent validity and imprimatur to Rep. Amatong’s unqualified indorsement of PEEDAI as a project implementor,” it said.
As the frontline officer responsible for monitoring legislators’ PDAF, she was expected to know and comply with the pertinent laws and regulations, it said.
The Sandiganbayan also found PEEDAI president Canoy liable for signing the documents for the release of funds to the NGO despite knowing there was no appropriation law or public bidding that would serve as basis for its selection.
“Therefore, the Court finds his acts imbued with a dishonest purpose and conscious doing of a wrong,” it said.
Other PEEDAI officers are also considered responsible officers for the criminal act committed by the NGO as the NGO could only act through its officers and agents, it said.
