MANILA - The Sandiganbayan has sentenced former military comptroller, retired Maj. Gen. Carlos F. Garcia, to serve up to 14 years in jail and pay more than PHP407 million on bribery and money laundering-related charges. In its eight-page decision promulgated on July 5 and written by Associate Justice Oscar Herrera Jr., the anti-graft court found Garcia guilty of direct bribery and sentenced him to four to eight years in prison and a fine of PHP406.3 million or three times the value of the gifts he received. The tribunal also sentenced him to four to six years imprisonment and fined him PHP1.5 million for the separate charge of "facilitating money laundering." Garcia had entered into a plea bargaining agreement with the Office of the Ombudsman in 2010 where he agreed to plead guilty to the lesser offense of direct bribery instead of the original charge of plunder and to "facilitating money laundering" instead of money laundering. The charges arose from the wealth he
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Sandiganbayan (File photo) MANILA - The Sandiganbayan anti-graft court has ordered an official of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to return transportation allowances as she was already issued a service vehicle. The anti-graft court's Second Division found NIA department manager Virginia Atienza civilly liable and ordered her to return to the government the amount of PHP58,000 with interest. The 20-page decision stated that even as the law excuses no one, the act "did not amount to a criminal because there is no sufficient evidence to show appellate acted with manifest partiality and evident bad faith". The December 6 ruling written by Associate Justice Oscar Herrera Jr. reversed and set aside the October 2019 ruling of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 97 that sentenced Atienza up to 10 years in prison each for 17 counts of violation of the Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Atienza was charged in 2011 for claiming
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MANILA - The Sandiganbayan has cleared three officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Region III of graft charges filed 13 years ago. The anti-graft court acquitted Regidor De Leon, regional executive director; Leonardo Aggabao Jr., regional technical director; Fernando Clerigo, an engineer, in a 2008 complaint for alleged violation of Republic Act 3019, otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, according to an 11-page decision written by Associate Justice Oscar Herrera Jr. on October 8 and recently published online. Complainants Jaime Lazaro, Salvador Osita and Monico Waje of Barangay Boltok in Sta. Cruz, Zambales claimed the trio canceled their survey plans without notice and hearing and before the scheduled ground verification survey, thus giving unwarranted benefits to contractor DMCI. The complaints said the three officials misrepresented that a property, which they claimed they own, was submerged and part of the South China Sea
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