Author Topic: Lito Lapid off the hook  (Read 903 times)

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Lito Lapid off the hook
« on: September 12, 2008, 01:26:41 AM »
MANILA, Philippines—Senator Lito Lapid has escaped prosecution in a graft case involving the purchase of a 40-hectare property in Pampanga for which two deeds of sale were executed bearing widely divergent amounts when he was the province’s governor 11 years ago.

Letting him off the hook, the Office of the Ombudsman informed the Sandiganbayan First Division that Lapid could not be held liable for the purchase of the property for P104 million after another deed surfaced days later showing a purchase price of P5 million.

“As correctly pointed out by the accused, it is imperative upon the judge to relieve [him] from the pain of going through a trial once it is ascertained that the evidence is insufficient to sustain a prima facie case,” said assistant special prosecutor Elita Santos in a resolution.

The 17-page resolution withdrawing the graft case against Lapid was approved by Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio and Deputy Special Prosecutor Wendell Barreras-Sulit.

In reinvestigating the graft charge upon Lapid’s request in 2005, the Ombudsman found that two deeds of sale were executed for the same property.

The deed of sale Lapid signed on November 3, 1997, was for P104 million; 14 days later a second deed of sale surfaced showing the property had been sold to the province for P5 million.

Abelardo Miranda, seller of the property and a respondent in the case, had also executed the second document.

The investigation showed the second deed may have been executed to hide the true value of the land in order to lower the seller’s tax bill.

It showed the transfer tax Miranda paid the provincial government was only P25,000, an amount corresponding to real property worth P5 million.

“Clearly Lapid had nothing to do with the preparation of the second deed of sale dated Nov. 17, 1997, for the reduced amount of P5 million, and the best evidence is the document itself which only bears the signature of accused Miranda,” the resolution said.

The other respondents in the case are then Pampanga Provincial Treasurer Jovito Sabado, Luzviminda Soriano, chief, assessment division of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and her clerk, Ma. Luisa San Antonio.

The Ombudsman also upheld Lapid’s authority to approve the sale of the same property to RightPak International Corp. for P143.5 million four years later, acknowledging that the provincial government made P39 million from the transaction.

Complainant Cielo Macapagal-Salgado had accused Lapid of causing the government undue injury by entering into a deed of absolute sale when he had no authority to do so and when he paid the seller P104 million even if the transfer certificate had not yet been executed.

Macapagal-Salgado, half-sister of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, also said Lapid had no authority to use the P130-million cash deposit the provincial government had in the Philippine National Bank as security for the P104 million payment it obtained from another bank.

The Ombudsman, however, ruled Lapid’s actions were covered by a resolution passed by the provincial board.(Inquirer.net)

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