Six persons including five former officials of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC), now Department of Transportation (DOTr),  have been convicted of graft by the Sandiganbayan over the irregular purchase of cellular phones worth P5.9 million in 2005.

In a 173-page decision issued last June 7, the Sandiganbayan's Third Division found guilty of violating Section 3 (e) of Republic Act (RA) No. 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act,  former DOTC officials Venancio G. Santidad, Geronimo V. Quintos, Ildefonso T. Patdu Jr., Rebecca S. Cacatian, and Elmer A. Soneja, and Domingo Samuel Jonathan L. Ng, proprietor of the West Island Beverages Distributor.

They were sentenced to a prison term ranging from six years and one month as minimum to 10 years as maximum. They were also perpetually disqualified from holding public office. 

Former Iloilo 2nd District congresswoman Judy Jalbuena Syjuco, who was No. 1 in the list of those accused, entered into a plea bargaining agreement with the prosecution and pleaded guilty to the crimes of frauds against the public treasury and failure to render accounts.

After depositing P5.9 million to the anti-graft court and with the concurrence of the prosecution, Syjuco's plea was granted. She was fined P16,000, her bail was ordered returned, and her hold departure order was lifted.

In its decision, the court acquitted two accused -- former DOTC official Purificacion Desiderio Jr. and former storekeeper Antonio D. Cruz.

The court also issued an alias warrant of arrest against former DOTC assistant secretary Domingo A. Reyes who remained at large.

The case stemmed from DOTC’s 2005 award of the contract to West Island for the purchase 1,482 units of Nokia 1100 cellular phones worth P5,964,859.09 that were supposed to be distributed to Region VI. The funds came from the DOTC which released the money in two tranches.

In its decision written by Presiding Justice Amparo M. Cabotaje-Tang, the Sandiganbayan said: “The Court finds accused BAC (Bids and Awards Committee) members Santidad, Quintos, Patdu, Cacatian and Soneja’s brazen disregard of the explicit provisions of the procurement law its implementing rules and regulations and obliviousness to patent irregularities surrounding the subject procurement resulted in the illegal award of the subject contract to accused Ng.”

It pointed out that RA 9184, the Government Procurement Reform Act, “requires that all procurements shall be done through competitive public bidding.”

“Here, it is undisputed that there was no competitive public bidding. The subject cellular phones were procured through the alternative method of procurement, that is through direct contracting,” it said. 

However, it said, the “requirements/conditions for direct contracting set by the procurement law and its IRR (implementing rules and regulations) were not complied with."

All the accused were acquitted of the charge of malversation of public funds through falsification. It said "the fact of purchase and delivery of the subject items were sufficiently shown by the prosecution evidence.”

“Thus, the said circumstance effectively negates the prosecution’s theory that there was a ‘ghost’ purchase and delivery of the subject cellular phones,” the court said. 

Associate Justices Bernelito R. Fernandez and Ronald B. Moreno concurred in the decision.