Former Mayor Artemio Que Chan of Pozorrubio town in Pangasinan has been convicted of falsification of public document by the Sandiganbayan for signing the marriage certificate of a couple whose wedding was solemnized in 2015 by his son, then Vice Mayor Kelvin Tong Chan.
In a decision issued by the court’s seventh division, Artemio Chan was sentenced to two years, four months and one day of prision correccional as minimum to eight years and one day of prision mayor as maximum.
The accessory penalties of temporary absolute disqualification for public office and perpetual special disqualification from the right to suffrage were imposed on him. He was also fined P5,000.
The complainants, spouses Andy Dela Rosa and Mary Jane Jovellanos, accused Artemio Chan of falsification since he attached his name to their marriage certificate as the officiator, even though it was his son, then Vice Mayor Kelvin Chan, who arrived and solemnized their marriage.
In its decision, the anti-graft court said that it is "beyond comprehension, if not an oddity to human experience" why Artemio Chan simply did not document the marriage properly.
It said Artemio Chan reasoned that he had to make haste during the time of the wedding, given the reported illness of his mother. But the court said no evidence was presented.
"The illness his mother may have suffered cannot certainly be downplayed, but proof on this fact was not even made, absent medical documents to sustain the claim. If indeed accused had to rush at the hour of the wedding celebration, the least that he could have done was to document it properly," the decision stressed.
"The grain of truth, however, rang when instead of the Vice Mayor signing the Certificate of Marriage, it was the signature of an absentee solemnizing official which appeared therein," the decision stated.
Seventh Division Chairperson Ma. Theresa Dolores C. Gomez-Estoesta wrote the decision with the concurrence of Associate Justices Zaldy V. Trespeses and Georgina D. Hidalgo.