The Sandiganbayan has allowed two former cooperative officials in Sarangani province to plead guilty to a lesser offense of failure to render accounts instead of undergoing trial on charges of malversation of P350,000 in public funds.

With the approval of the plea bargaining they implored, Hadji Moner C. Mangalen and Umbra Adam Macagcalat -- former president and treasurer, respectively, of the Kamanga Muslim-Christian Fishermen Cooperative – were sentenced to a prison term ranging from four months and one day to one year, one month and 11 days for violation of Article 218 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC).

The anti-graft court did not impose damages as it was proven that Mangalen and Macagcalat had returned the P350,000 to the provincial government.

Had they opted to plead not guilty to the malversation charge under Article 217 of the RPC and found guilty by the anti-graft court, they would have been sentenced to a prison term ranging from 12 years and one days to 20 years.

Plea bargaining is a negotiation between the prosecution and the accused in a criminal case whereby the accused, in return for leniency or a lighter sentence, pleads guilty to a lesser offense.

The court’s decision was written by Associate Justice Sarah Jane T. Fernandez and concurred in by Associate Justices Bernelito R. Fernandez and Kevin Narce B. Vivero.

“Having pleaded guilty to such lesser crime, the said accused are deemed to have admitted all the material facts alleged therein,” the court noted in its decision.