FORMER Rep. Eduardo Veloso of the third district of Leyte has been convicted by the Sandiganbayan of two counts graft and malversation of public funds for diverting P24.2 million of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel fund to a bogus private foundation in 2007.
Veloso, along with Maria Rosalinda Lacsamana, former group manager of the now defunct Technology Resource Center (TRC), were also sentenced to six to 10 years for each count of graft and 12 to 18 years for each count of malversation or a total of 36 to 56 years imprisonment.
The 52-page decision of the anti-graft court’s First Division also ordered the defendants to indemnify the government to the tune of P24.2 million representing the amount unlawfully disbursed and to pay fines in the same amount, or a total of P49.4 million.
The court also imposed perpetual disqualification from holding public office against them.
However, the Sandiganbayan acquitted former TRC deputy director general Dennis Cunanan, chief accountant Marivic Jover, and group manager Francisco Figura on lack of evidence to establish their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Associate Justice and First Division chairperson Efren N. de la Cruz penned the decision with the concurrence of Associate Justices Geraldine Faith A. Econg and Arthur O. Malabaguio.
Based on the four criminal charges filed in 2019 by the Office of the Ombudsman, prosecutors accused the former lawmaker of conspiring with TRC officers to divert P14.4 million from his PDAF allocations in March 2007 to Aaron Foundation Philippines Inc. (AFPI), headed by deceased private defendant Alfredo A. Ronquillo.
This was followed by the transfer of another P9.8 million in favor of the same foundation in April 2007.
In convicting Veloso and Lacsamana, the court noted that not a single centavo of the P24.2 million that went into AFPI for the supposed implementation of livelihood projects has been liquidated.
“Nary a single testimony or document was offered to show that the subject PDAF funds were utilized for the public purpose that they have been allocated for, indicative of undue injury cause to the government,” the Sandiganbayan pointed out.
Veloso was found to have unilaterally handpicked AFPI to be the NGO partner of TRC without any justification. While the lawmaker claimed that he only heard of Aaron Foundation from colleagues in Congress, he failed to mention their names during his testimony.
Likewise, the former congressman admitted that he wrote to the Speaker to request the release of his PDAF in favor of TRC and recommended Aaron Foundation as its conduit or NGO partner.
“For accused Veloso to endorse Aaron, a foundation whose qualifications and track record are unknown to him… points to the conclusion that he acted in a plain inclination or predilection to favor Aaron. Thus, Veloso’s act of endorsing Aaron to the exclusion of other NGOs is highly indicative of his manifest partiality,” the court added.
On the other than, it noted that Cunanan, Figura, and Jover merely relied on Lacsamana as the legislative liaison officer of TRC, to determine that Aaron was duly accredited as an NGO and that she had reviewed the relevant documents and found them to be in order.
“It is accused Lacsamana’s duty to ascertain that the supporting documents relating to the projects were signed, complete, and in order,” the Sandiganbayan said.
It noted that had she “only exerted the littlest effort” to verify the registration and financial documents of Aaron Foundation, she would have been alerted by the red flags that it is a “sham NGO.”
However, even if they were acquitted, the court held that Cunanan, Figura and Jover may still be held civilly liable based on their participations in the transaction. They were ordered to jointly pay the government the P24.2 million as civil liability together with Veloso and Lacsamana.
