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Sandigan castigates 2 gov't officials
11 December 2012

          THE Office of the Ombudsman won the cases filed against two government officials after the Sandiganbayan convicted a governor and penalized a municipal mayor for separate offenses.

          In a 31-page decision penned by Associate Justice Efren N. Dela Cruz and concurred in by Associate Justices Rodolfo A. Ponferrada and Rafael R. Lagos, the anti-graft court’s First Division found Camarines Norte Governor Casimiro “Roy” Padilla Jr. guilty of malversation of public property for failing to return the .45 caliber pistol issued to him by the Philippine National Police (PNP) in 1992 as his service firearm.

          The court imposed upon Padilla an indeterminate prison term of four months and one day of arresto mayor as minimum to four years and two months of prision correccional as maximum, with perpetual special disqualification from holding public office and to pay a fine of P200.00.

          Padilla was also ordered to indemnify the PNP the amount of P200 with legal rate of interest from the filing of the Information until fully paid.

          Records showed that despite repeated demands from the PNP, Padilla failed to return the firearm supposedly worth P7,462 including the magazine and ammunition.

          Meanwhile, in a separate case, the Sandiganbayan penalized Mayor Shuaib Astami of Balabac, Palawan for violating Section 59 in relation to Section 72 of the Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA).

          In a 25-page decision, the Court sentenced Astami to pay a fine of P100,000 with subsidiary imprisonment in case of non-payment.

          The court held that the evidence of the prosecution had sufficiently established that Astami entered into a Marine Lease Contract with Ecofarm System and Resources, Inc. in February 2000 leasing to the latter, for a period of 25 years, the municipal waters and marine area of the town to the firm for the purpose of cultivation, breeding and development of bivalve oysters and other similar aquatic produce suitable for pearl culture and other related uses, without securing a prior Certification Precondition from the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) that the area affected does not overlap with any ancestral domain.

          The Court found out that the contract was forged even if there is a pending application for a Certification of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) on the areas affected by the deal.         

          “Non-compliance with the provision of Section 59 of the IPRA which is penalized under Section 72 thereof is malum prohibitum [wrong due to being prohibited], and hence, the fact alone that the accused [Astami] violated the law warrants his conviction,” the decision stated.

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