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Friday, March 29, 2024

Sandigan finds another Ampatuan guilty of graft

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The Sandiganbayan has found another member of the Ampatuan clan guilty of graft and malversation of public funds and sentenced him to imprisonment of up to 18 years.

Convicted with former Maguindanao governor Datu Sajid Islam U. Ampatuan was his provincial budget officer at the time Datu Ali Kanakan Abpi Al Haj. (‘Al Haj’ appended to Abpi’s name means he has gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca.)

Ampatuan is the sitting vice mayor of Shariff Saydona town.

In addition to the prison terms, the two were ordered to return P16,317,559 or the amount that the two mishandled in the purchase of food supplies in 2009.

Both Ampatuan and Abpi were sentenced to six to 10 years imprisonment for graft and 10 to 18 years term for malversation.

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The cases against their co-accused, former provincial accountant John Estelito G. Dollosa Jr. and former provincial treasurer Osmena M. Bandila have been ordered archived pending their arrest.

The cases against former provincial administrator Norie K. Unas and former officer-in-charge of the provincial engineer’s office Landap
Guinaid had been dismissed due to their deaths.

In its decision, the antigraft court declared that the provincial government’s purchases of various food supplies worth P16,317,559 from
Henry Merchandising from Feb. 2 to Sept. 30, 2009 were anomalous due to lack of public bidding, no food supplies were delivered and Henry
Merchandising was nonexistent.

During trial, the prosecution was able to prove that Henry Merchandising was indeed “an unqualified bidder and supplier with a
highly doubtful existence” as the company failed to submit documents showing its eligibility requirements, the court said.

Henry Merchandising likewise did not have an actual or physical store or warehouse where stocks of the items bought—such as rice M-I, Maggi
noodles, Young Town’s sardine, brown sugar, and dried fish—could be found, it said.

There were also mismatched dates in most of the documents, including the official receipts, purchase orders, and disbursement vouchers.
These “omissions,” said the anti-graft court, could have easily been supplied if the transactions were legitimate.

However, the anti-graft court acquitted Ampatuan and Al Haj of their falsification charges because the prosecution failed to prove malicious intent on the part of Ampatuan.

“In the absence of evidence to show that accused Sajid knew that there were no deliveries of food supplies to the recipients at the time he
signed the subject DVs, this Court finds the evidence on record insufficient to sustain his conviction,” stated the  75-page decision
written by Associate Justice Maria Theresa V. Mendoza-Arcega. The antigraft court’s Fifth Division Chairman, Rafael R. Lagos, and
Associate Justice Maryann E. Corpus-Mañalac concurred.

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