The Sandiganbayan threw out the graft and malversation raps against two officials of the now-defunct Technology Research Center, formerly the Technology and Livelihood Resource Center, arising from the infamous multi-billion pork barrel scam.
For failure of the prosecution to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the court’s Second Division acquitted TRC deputy director general Dennis Cunanan and corporate support services group manager Francisco Figura.
The 57-page ruling signed on 4 August ruled that Cunanan and Figura were “properly entitled to exculpation” because of their timely misgiving and protestation about the PDAF or Priority Development Assistance Fund transactions.
The two erstwhile TRC execs with their other co-accused, director general Antonio Ortiz and legislative liaison officer Maria Rosalinda Lacsamana, were indicted with graft and malversation of public funds for the misuse of pork barrel funds of the late Compostella Valley Rep. Prospero Amatong from 2007 to 2013 amounting P10 million.
Officials of the Philippine Environmental and Ecological Development Association Inc., chief executive officer Butch Canoy, chief operating officer Vincent Jaudian, vice president Alfredo Soriano, and treasurer Mercy Cabig were their co-respondents in the graft case.
The case stemmed from the release of P9.8 million of the TRC to the non-government organization PEEDAI drawn from Amatong’s PDAF for the lawmaker’s supposed livelihood project in his district.
However, the Ombudsman, which filed the case in 2019, later discovered that projects turned out to be non-existent or ghost.
The project was awarded to PEEDAI despite its doubtful credentials and non-submission of periodic project reports and liquidation reports, according to the case.
According to the Sandiganbayan, the TRC officials allowed PEEDAI “to take possession and thus misappropriate public funds, instead of implementing the said PDAF-funded project in the 2nd District of Compostela Valley, which project turned out to be non-existent.”
Moreover, Ombudsman said the TRC retained P200,000 as a service fee and cost of livelihood materials.
The TRC officials were named co-respondents of multiple lawmakers over the alleged releases of their pork barrel funds to bogus NGOs, such as those formed and controlled by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged pork barrel mastermind.
While Cunanan Figura walked free from the charges, Lacsamana, Canoy, Jaudian, Cabig, and Soriano were found guilty of graft in the same ruling.
They were sentenced to up to 10 years behind bars and ordered to return P10 million representing the amount wrongfully and illegally disbursed.
Lacsamana was also meted up to 18 years of imprisonment after being found guilty of malversation of public funds. She was ordered to pay a P10 million fine and to reinstitute the government the same amount.