Dismissed Southern Leyte Governor cleared of falsification charges
Published May 24, 2018 02:57 pm
By Czarina Nicole Ong
Dismissed Southern Leyte Governor Damian Mercado has been cleared by the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division of his two falsification charges involving the wrongful information he provided in two public documents.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
Mercado was acquitted in a resolution penned on May 21 as the court granted his motion to quash due to the violation of his right to speedy disposition of cases.
In the charge sheets against Mercado, he was accused of violating Article 171, paragraph 4 of the Revised Penal Code when he supposedly the information about his educational background.
On June 30, 2010, Mercado wrote in the CSC Form 212 or the Personal Data Sheet that he obtained a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Visayas. However, the truth was that he did not enroll at the university, nor did he obtain the degree.
He also stated that he finished his elementary education in 1971, and that he is a Civil Engineer. However, he did not really graduate with the degree and he graduated from Maasin Central School in 1968.
Mercado then submitted the same falsehood on the Elective Local Official's Profile Directory in Data Capture Form, which was submitted to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
In his motion to quash, Mercado argued that the facts alleged in the Information do not constitute the offense of falsification. He maintained there is no probable cause that exists to support the indictment against him, since the documents in which he reportedly stated falsehoods are not public documents.
The information gathered by the DILG was merely a "request," and "there is no malice that can be ascribed to anything that one puts into it, because it does not go into the qualification of holding public elective office."
However, the anti-graft court chose not to dwell on this argument because it already agreed that Mercado's constitutional right was violated by the prosecution.
"Given the attendant circumstances in the instant case, as shown by the timeline outlined by the accused, it took 10 long years for the Office of the Ombudsman from the time the letter-complaint was received on March 7, 2008 to investigate and resolve the complaint until the Information was eventually filed on February 23, 2018," the resolution read.
"Within that 10-year period, it took the Office of the Ombudsman six years from the time the letter-complaint was referred to OMB-Visayas for fact-finding investigation on March 31, 2008 to file a formal Complaint-Affidavit on April 12, 2014," it added.
The court stated that the prosecution failed to provide valid reasons for the delay and convince the court why the instant case should not be dismissed.
The 10-page resolution was penned by Chairperson Rafael Lagos and concurred by Associate Justices Ma. Theresa Mendoza-Arcega and Mary Anne Corpus-Manalac.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
Mercado was acquitted in a resolution penned on May 21 as the court granted his motion to quash due to the violation of his right to speedy disposition of cases.
In the charge sheets against Mercado, he was accused of violating Article 171, paragraph 4 of the Revised Penal Code when he supposedly the information about his educational background.
On June 30, 2010, Mercado wrote in the CSC Form 212 or the Personal Data Sheet that he obtained a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Visayas. However, the truth was that he did not enroll at the university, nor did he obtain the degree.
He also stated that he finished his elementary education in 1971, and that he is a Civil Engineer. However, he did not really graduate with the degree and he graduated from Maasin Central School in 1968.
Mercado then submitted the same falsehood on the Elective Local Official's Profile Directory in Data Capture Form, which was submitted to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
In his motion to quash, Mercado argued that the facts alleged in the Information do not constitute the offense of falsification. He maintained there is no probable cause that exists to support the indictment against him, since the documents in which he reportedly stated falsehoods are not public documents.
The information gathered by the DILG was merely a "request," and "there is no malice that can be ascribed to anything that one puts into it, because it does not go into the qualification of holding public elective office."
However, the anti-graft court chose not to dwell on this argument because it already agreed that Mercado's constitutional right was violated by the prosecution.
"Given the attendant circumstances in the instant case, as shown by the timeline outlined by the accused, it took 10 long years for the Office of the Ombudsman from the time the letter-complaint was received on March 7, 2008 to investigate and resolve the complaint until the Information was eventually filed on February 23, 2018," the resolution read.
"Within that 10-year period, it took the Office of the Ombudsman six years from the time the letter-complaint was referred to OMB-Visayas for fact-finding investigation on March 31, 2008 to file a formal Complaint-Affidavit on April 12, 2014," it added.
The court stated that the prosecution failed to provide valid reasons for the delay and convince the court why the instant case should not be dismissed.
The 10-page resolution was penned by Chairperson Rafael Lagos and concurred by Associate Justices Ma. Theresa Mendoza-Arcega and Mary Anne Corpus-Manalac.