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Ombudsman gets victory as Sandigan sentences ex-PNB exec up to 105 years
05 December 2012

          THE Office of the Ombudsman scored another big victory after the Sandiganbayan sentenced a former high ranking officer of the Philippine National Bank (PNB) up to 105 years arising from a check fraud involving millions of pesos in 1995.

          In a 71-page decision penned by Associate Justice Rafael Lagos and concurred in by Associate Justices Efren de la Cruz and Rodolfo Ponferrada, the anti-graft court’s First Division found Herman Limbo, PNB’s Assistant Dept. Manager, Cagayan de Oro (CDO) City Branch, guilty of violating Section 3 (e) of Republic Act (R.A.) No. 3019 on 15 counts and sentenced him to an indeterminate penalty of imprisonment of 6 years and 1 month, as minimum, to 7 years, as maximum, with perpetual disqualification from public office, in each of these cases.

          The court ordered Limbo to pay the government the amount of more than P35 million with interest until fully paid as civil liability for his criminal acts in 7 cases.

          Limbo and PNB Asst. Vice President Erlinda Archinas who remains at-large are impleaded as the principal accused in the sixteen (16) Informations filed with the court for authorizing the encashment of 49 out-of-town checks in many occasions, prior to clearing, which was against the PNB bank policy and BSP regulations.

          They allegedly gave unwarranted benefits to Cecilia Li, Rebuan Saripada, Rosita Mejia, and Trinidad Lee through evident bad faith and manifest partiality, as these four valued clients were allowed to encash checks without any prior clearance from the drawee bank.

          Records showed that these “uncleared checks later on bounced and were returned either for having no sufficient funding, payment being stopped, or the drawer’s account being closed.”

          Blan Sabanal and Ma. Lourdes Escoro, then employees of PNB CDO, a government bank at that time, were also impleaded in some of the 16 Informations, together with the valued clients—Li, Saripada, Mejia and Jesus Louis and Trinidad Lee, who were charged to have conspired with the public officers.

          The drawers of the bounced or dishonored checks were also impleaded as accused, although not necessarily as con-conspirators.

          Limbo wrote the word “encashment” on several checks and initiated and dated the same, at the dorsal side of the checks.

          De la Cruz, Sabanal and Escoro validated for payment the checks presented to them because of accused Limbo’s “encashment” notation.

          It was revealed that the face amount of the checks negotiated by the four valued clients were credited into their accounts with PNB CDO, before the checks were cleared.

          The valued clients had existing current/ savings accounts with PNB CDO and had credit lines including Domestic Bills Purchase Line (DBPL) lines in the following amounts: Li, P6,100,000; Saripada, P2,000,000; Mejia, P2,600,000, and Jesus Louis, P1,500,000.

          Aside from Limbo, the court also found Li and Saripada guilty beyond reasonable doubt of violating Section 3 (e) of R.A. 3019 for acting in conspiracy with Limbo. Li was sentenced to suffer the penalty of imprisonment of 6 years and 1 month, minimum, to 7 years, maximuim, with perpetual disqualification from public office, for each of the three cases, while Saripada was meted the same penalties in each of the five cases.

          In its ruling, the court said that “the court has no recourse but to take into the account the admissions and/ or stipulations made by [Limbo], Saripada and Li and the concerned bank tellers, that all the checks (except for DBP Check No. 1834400 in Criminal Case No. 25403) they were involved in, were all approved by Limbo for encashment.”

          “In his testimony and in his memorandum, accused Limbo did not deny that he wrote the word “encashment” on these checks and signed the same,” the ruling stated.

          The court, therefore, stated that “on the basis of the testimonies of the bank tellers and Saripada, together with the admission of Li that these checks were approved for encashment by Limbo and the deposit slips indicating “cash” as the form of deposit, can only conclude that Limbo did in fact authorize the encashment of the out-of-town checks, even before they were cleared.”

          The Sandiganbayan further held that “Limbo’s contention that he placed the words “encashment” on these checks just to enable PNB CDO to collect bank commission is pure hogwash.”

          While all 16 cases were submitted for decision, only the cases as against Limbo, the tellers De la Cruz, Sabanal and Escoro and accused Li and Saripada were disposed of in the anti-graft court’s verdict. Limbo was acquitted in one of those cases for insufficiency of evidence.

          On the other hand, the court said that the culpability of those who remain at-large namely accused Archinas, Ma. Theresa Rubic, Castan Panduma, Monena Arcaya, Alexander Vistan, Steve Factura, Rosita Mangana, Rosita Mejia and Jesus Louis and Trinidad Lee,” shall be determined once they are brought into this court’s jurisdiction.”

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