By Czarina Nicole Ong
Former Palawan Vice Governor David Ponce De Leon has been convicted by the Sandiganbayan First Division of his two estafa through falsification charges.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
De Leon was found guilty for violating Article 315 in relation to Article 171(6) of the Revised Penal Code for defrauding the government a total of P214,656.89 by altering the amounts in two receipts.
He first defrauded the government with P10,000 by altering the amount in official receipt no. 121240 dated July 29, 2002 issued by Badjao Sea Front. This represented payment for meals and snacks, paid in advance by De Leon. He made it appear that the amount paid was P12,975.50 instead of P2,975.50.
Next, he defrauded the provincial government P204,656.89 by altering the amount in official receipt no. 17366 dated December 18, 2002 issued by The Legend Hotels International Corporation, which represented payment for meals and snacks.
De Leon reportedly made it appear that the amount paid was P205,000 instead of P343.11.
He was sentenced to suffer the indeterminate penalty of eight years four months and two days of prison correctional as minimum to 20 years and one day of prison mayor as maximum.
He was also ordered to pay a total fine of P60,000.
For these charges, he was accused alongside Executive Assitant V Adonis Grande, Provincial Treasurer Teofilo Palanca Jr., Provincial Accountant Orlando Colobong, Provincial Budget Officer Luis Marcaida II, and Management and Audit Analyst II Anita Salas.
Salas was convicted alongside De Leon, but Grande, Colobong, Palanca Jr. and Marcaida were acquitted due to the failure of the prosecution to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
In this case, the anti-graft court found that the two receipts met all the elements of the crime and were therefore falsified. However, there is no direct evidence as to who performed the alterations on the two receipts.
Defense witness Ma. Lourdes Olbes declared that no cash advances were made at the time, so it was De Leon who advanced the money for the payment of the expenses.
Olbes added that after the receipts were given to her by Badjao Sea Front and Legend Hotel, she "turned them over to the staff handling the reimbursement process and submitting the documents for submission to the provincial accounting office."
None of these witnesses could identify who this staff member was, since a significant amount of time has passed and some of them are no longer with the provincial government of Palawan.
Still, the anti-graft court noted that the custody of the receipts belong to the office of the vice governor. It would be "trifling," the court ruled, to even determine the person to whom the receipts were allegedly turned over to, as long as it was established that the receipts effectively passed under the custody of the office of the vice governor.
The court highlighted that it was De Leon who requested for the reimbursements of the receipts by signing the two vouchers and becoming the payee in the ensuing check payments, ultimately benefitting from it.
"Since the accused was the only person who stood to benefit by the falsification of the document found in his possession, the presumption of authorship of the falsification applies in the absence of contrary convincing proof by the accused," the court ruled.