FORMER La Union Rep. Thomas Dumpit Jr., five former executives of the Technology Resource Center (TRC), and three private defendants have been acquitted by the Sandiganbayan in four counts each of graft and malversation of public funds.
Declaring that the prosecution’s evidence failed to prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt, the anti-graft court’s First Division said its only choice was to grant exoneration as a matter of right.
The 179-page decision dated November 28, 2023 was penned by Associate Justice Geraldine Faith A. Econg with Associate Justices Efren N. de la Cruz and Juliet M. Manalo-San Gaspar concurring.
Also acquitted were former TRC deputy director general Dennis Cunanan, group managers Francisco Figura and Ma. Rosalinda Lacsamana, budget officer Consuelo Espiritu, chief accountant Marivic Jover, and private defendants Flerida Alberto, Pio Ronquillo Jr., and Fe Ronquillo, who represented non-government organizations.
“The evidence of the prosecution does not meet the test of moral certainty in order to establish that accused public officers Dumpit, Cunanan, Figura, Lacsamana, Espiritu, and Jover conspired with accused private individuals,” the court declared.
Based on the 2017 indictments, the Office of the Ombudsman accused Dumpit of conspiring with TRC officials to defraud the government of P6.5 million from his Priority Development Fund (PDAF) or legislative pork barrel funds which ended up with hand-picked NGOs Kabuhayan at Kalusugang Alay sa Masa Foundation (KKAMFI) and Aaron Foundation Philippines Inc. (AFPI).
Prosecutors said Dumpit unilaterally chose and endorsed the two NGOs as project partners in the implementation of livelihood projects in his district without the benefit of public bidding and despite the absence of accreditation or business permits for both KKAMFI and AFPI.
Testimonies from government auditors, licensing officers, and traders who were presented on the witness stand showed that the NGOs had questionable existence and submitted bogus liquidation documents, including falsified receipts from legitimate businesses.
In acquitting Dumpit, the Sandiganbayan held that in 2008, a legislator’s endorsement of an NGO to implement his projects funded by his PDAF allocations was still valid. It was only in 2013 that the Supreme Court declared that a lawmaker’s intervention in funding government projects was unconstitutional.
The court also gave weight to the La Union congressman’s defense that he did not sign any of the documents supposedly bearing his name and signature. A handwriting specialist called by the defense as an expert witness identified the signatures as forged.
“We find and so hold that accused Dumpit sufficiently proved his defense of forgery as to the purported signatures of the accused in the PDAF documents relevant to this case,” the court declared.
In the case of the TRC officials, the court held that their actions, while not ideal, could not be a basis for a conviction for violation of RA 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act which requires “fraudulent intent or a clear, notorious, or plain inclination to favor one side or person over another.”
The ruling gave little weight to the testimony of State Auditor Gloria Silverio who noted that the TRC executives certified that the fund transfer to the NGOs was “necessary and lawful” even if this violated laws and regulations since the documents submitted were spurious and the very existence of KKAFi and AFPI was doubtful.
On the other hand, it faulted the resident auditor of TRC for “lack of sufficient and timely directives to stop the processing of PDAF-funded projects” as the audit raised no red flags about the said transactions.
