Bukidnon lawmaker Candido Pancrudo Jr. and two others were found guilty of multiple counts of graft, malversation of public funds, and malversation of public funds via falsification of public documents, the Sandiganbayan said.
Aside from Pancrudo, also found guilty by the court were former Technology and Resource Center (TRC) legislative liaison officer Maria Rosalinda Lacsamana and Farmerbusiness Development Corp. (FDC) representative Johanne Edward Labay, GMA News reported.
The case involved the disbursement of P36.9 million worth of pork barrel funds for training and livelihood seminars that turned out to be ghost projects.
Voting 3-2, the court’s Special Second Division ruled that the three are guilty of eight counts of graft, four counts of malversation of public funds, and four counts of malversation of public funds via falsification of public documents.
The three were charged for the release of Pancrudo’s P36.9 million Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) — the official name of pork barrel — in 2007 to 2008 supposedly to finance training and livelihood seminars, as well as to purchase training kits for Pancrudo’s constituents. Both, however, turned out to be ghost projects.