The Sandiganbayan has convicted a former Department of Finance (DOF) official of his four graft charges involving the unlawful transfer of Tax Credit Certificates in 1998.
Convicted was then deputy executive director Uldarico P. Andutan Jr. who was sentenced to a prison term ranging from six to eight years for each count of graft.
Andutan was also ordered to return to the national government a total of P4,692,595 which represented the total amount of the transferred Tax Credit Certificates.
On the other hand, the cases against the other accused -- the late Undersecretary Antonio P. Belicena and Evaluator Emelita Tizon -- have been dismissed in light of their deaths.
The charges against private individuals Eulogio Reyes, Albert Ling, Vinalyn Ling, Eduardo Samonte, and Myrna Jose have been ordered archived pending their arrests.
In its decision, the Sandiganbayan stressed that a luxury vehicle is not a capital equipment, raw material, nor component in the operations of a textile-manufacturing company, and Andutan should not have allowed the transfer of public funds by way of the Tax Credit Certificates.
Transfers of four Tax Credit Certificates were approved on Feb. 13, 1998 from Devmark Textiles Industries, Inc. to Proton Pilipinas Corporation. The amounts involved were P1,788,657, P1,807,616, P1,809,944, and P1,793,877.
The anti-graft court agreed with the prosecution that the transfer is allowed “only to domestic producers/manufacturers of raw materials and components supplier of the transferor/assignor."
"Suffice it to say that the evidence demonstrably establishes the irreverent disregard by accused Andutan... as gatekeeper of tax credits, in manifest partiality toward the parties to the transfer," the court said.
"Not being lawfully entitled to the assignment of rights, it is without cavil that unwarranted benefit was bestowed upon Proton Pilipinas Corporation in the amount of the four tax Credit Certificates subject of the instant cases," it added.
In the same decision, the anti-graft court acquitted former DOF reviewer Asuncion M. Magdaet of four graft and four estafa through falsification charges; evaluators Purita S. Napenas (two counts each of graft and estafa through falsification) and Annabelle J. Dino-Tobyn (one count each).
Also acquitted were private individual Roman F. Oculto Jr. of four counts each due to the failure of the prosecution to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The decision was written by Second Division Chairperson Oscar C. Herrera Jr. with the concurrence of Associate Justices Edgardo M. Caldona and Arthur O. Malabaguio.
TAGS: #Sandiganbayan #Andutan #Tax Credit Certificates