By Czarina Nicole Ong  The provincial adjudicator of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has been acquitted of his two graft charges before the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division due to the failure of the prosecution to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt. DAR adjudicator Romeo Medina Covarrubias was initially slapped with two violations of Section 3(e) of R.A. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for lying about his marital status and letting a woman stay overnight with him at a resort where a conference was being held. Covarrubias reportedly took advantage of his government position on April and May 2013 when he introduced a certain Lynette Marcos Abarro as his wife and caused her to stay overnight with him in two different resorts. In April, Abarro stayed with Covarrubias at the Kansilad Beach Resort in Surigao del Sur when the Expanded Committee meeting was taking place. In May, he brought her to the D'Leonor Inland Resort in Davao City for the DAR Adjudication Board conference. The prosecution managed to prove that Covarrubias was a public officer at the time the reported crime was committed, but there were certain things lacking when it came to the second element of graft - that Covarrubias acted with manifest partiality, evident bad faith, or gross inexcusable negligence. The testimonies of prosecution witnesses Dominic Recto, Lexano Maala, and Rowena Elcullada all stated that Covarrubias never introduced Abarro as his spouse. "Neither testimonial evidence was presented that because Abarro was accused's spouse, she was accommodated by the executive committee meeting personnel to stay overnight at the resort at the expense of the government," the decision read. "If at all, the prosecution witnesses merely thought that Abarro was the legal spouse of the accused," it added. Without any personal knowledge about their relationship, the court said that their testimonies about Covarrubias and Abarro are merely "hearsay evidence." The third element of graft is also lacking in this case. The court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove that Covarrubias gave unwarranted benefit or advantage to Abarro, who was his legal researcher. Covarrubias was offered accommodation by the DAR Regional Director to stay overnight Kansilad Beach Resort because their meeting ended at 5 p.m. Instead of continuing his 300-kilometer journey from Kansilad Beach Resort in Surigao del Sur to Davao City, Covarrubias and Abarro were compelled to stay overnight "not only because of the non-availability of transportation but there was no other alternative resort in the area," the court said. "Failing to specify, quantify, and prove beyond certainty undue injury, to the point of moral certainty, the presumption of innocence in favor of the accused Covarrubias was not overcome," the decision read. The 38-page decision was penned by Chairperson Rafael Lagos with the concurrence of Associate Justices Ma. Theresa Mendoza Arcega and Maryann Corpus-Manalac.