The Sandiganbayan has acquitted three former Manila barangay (village) officials in the purchase of 120 sacks of rice worth P307,899 allegedly without public bidding and distributed two months after the declaration of a state of calamity in 2011.

Acquitted were former Sangguniang Barangay members Paulito Valencia Linis, Lutgarda Sandoval Bautista, and Benjamin Matias Chua of Barangay 598, Zone 59, District VI of Manila.

The anti-graft court’s decision reversed the ruling of the regional trial court (RTC) which convicted them and sentenced them to a jail term ranging from six to 10 years in May 2024.

Their co-accused – former Barangay chairperson Armando Enaje and former treasurer Brenia Frayers – were acquitted by the RTC for failure of the prosecution to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

The three convicted officials appealed the RTC ruling before the Sandiganbayan. They said the RTC failed to prove the essential elements of graft that they committed the alleged felony through manifest partiality and evident bad faith.

In its judgment of acquittal, the Sandiganbayan agreed that manifest partiality or evident bad faith were not sufficiently established.

It said the late distribution of the relief goods reflects poor judgment and not evident bad faith.

It also said the prosecution failed to establish that the three accused acted with a "palpably and patently fraudulent and dishonest purpose to do moral obliquity or conscious wrongdoing for some perverse motive or ill will."

At the same time, the anti-graft court said there was no evidence of unwarranted benefit given to rice supplier HRPH Trading which complied with the requirements of law when the contract was awarded to it.

"The evidence shows that the 120 sacks of rice were completely delivered by HRPH Trading, inspected by Barangay Treasurer Brenia Frayers, and accepted by Barangay Chairperson Armando Enaje," it also said.

Thus, it ruled that the evidence presented by the prosecution against the three accused did not support the RTC finding that they violated Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

The 35-page decision was written by Associate Justice Maryann E. Corpus-Manalac with the concurrence of Fifth Division Chairperson Associate Justice Zaldy V. Trespass and Associate Justice Gener M. Gito.