The Sandiganbayan has denied the plea for probation of retired Philippine National Police (PNP) Maj. Gen. Eliseo D. Dela Paz who has been ordered to pay a fine of P200,000 for a violation of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Act under Republic Act No. 7653.
Dela Paz was found guilty of possessing 105,000 Euros which he and his wife, Maria Fe, did not declare at the Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, Russia in 2008. At the time, Dela Paz was still director of the PNP’s Directorate for Comptrollership. His wife was acquitted.
He applied for probation and pointed out that he has all the qualifications enumerated in the Probation Law of 1976.
In denying his plea, the Sandiganbayan said that Section 14 of the Probation Law gives the maximum period of probation when the sentence imposed is imprisonment, and, in case of fine, if the offender is ordered to serve a prison term due to insolvency.
"Thus, in order for an accused to benefit from the probation law, the accused must be subject to imprisonment either through an imposed penalty of imprisonment or an imposed penalty of fine only but is unable to pay due to insolvency and is made to serve subsidiary imprisonment instead," the court said.
In the case of Dela Paz, the court said that he has not shown his inability to pay and settle the penalty imposed by the court. At the same time, it said, he has not established the fact of his insolvency to allow subsidiary imprisonment to set in.
"For these reasons... the Application for Probation cannot be granted," the court stressed.
The four-page resolution was written by fourth division Chairperson Michael Frederick L. Musngi with the concurrence of Associate Justices Lorifel L. Pahimna and Bayani H. Jacinto.
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