The Sandiganbayan has convicted former Bataan Shipyard and Engineering Corp., Inc. (Baseco) board member Agustiniana C. Avelino of 13 graft charges for the withdrawal of P102 million from 2008 to 2010 without proper justification.
Avelino has been sentenced to six to eight years imprisonment for each graft conviction and perpetually disqualified from holding public office.
She was also ordered to return and reimburse the government, through the Bureau of Treasury, the amounts of P500,000; P700,000; P31,466.66; P6,043,500; P6,042,168.72; P516,826.50; P33,214; P20,953,817.45; P20,000,000; P20,000,000; P10,000,000; P14,250,000; and P3,000,000 or a total of P102,070,993.28.
The case against retired Navy Capt. Proceso L. Maligalig, former president of the government-owned firm, had been dismissed in light of his death during the pendency of the Sandiganbayan proceedings.
Government prosecutors said that Maligalig and Avelino made the withdrawals "without prior authorization from the Baseco Board of Directors and without any justification for the said withdrawals."
They told the court that the accused also failed to "account for the same public funds, and thereafter diverting the amount to their personal use and benefit, to the damage and prejudice of the government in the afore-stated amount."
In her defense, Avelino told the court that the signatures on the 13 withdrawal slips were not hers, and she even affirmed that she was not familiar with the 13 withdrawal slips and has never been to the bank.
However, the court junked her defense as it ruled that the signatures in the withdrawal slips and bank documents were "unquestionably" hers.
It said that if Avelino truly believed her signatures were forged, she should have referred it to a handwriting expert but she failed to do so.
"The Court finds that the prosecution has sufficiently proved that the accused withdrew or caused the withdrawal of Baseco funds from its Peso Savings Account No. 049112000852 with PS Bank - Paco Branch without prior authorization from the Baseco Board of Directors," the decision stated.
"The injury to the government is apparent considering that the prosecution was able to prove that the amount withdrawn in Baseco's Peso Savings Account No. 049112000852 with PS Bank - Paco Branch was without justification and the accused failed to account for the stated amounts," it added.
The 92-page decision was written by Associate Justice Ronald B. Moreno with the concurrence of Presiding Justice Amparo M. Cabotaje-Tang and Associate Justice Bernelito R. Fernandez.