<\/p>\n
BY LEX MANALO<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n THE Sandiganbayan has ordered the conviction of a staff member of the late Negros Oriental 3rd District Rep. Herminio Teves and four others for graft.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Teves\u2019 former chief of staff Hiram Diday Pulido, and Livelihood Resource Center (TLRC) officials Dennis Cunanan (deputy director general), Marivic Jover (chief accountant) and Belina Concepcion (legislative liaison); and private individual Samuel Bombeo of Molugan Foundation Inc. (MFI) were found guilty of graft and malversation of public funds.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The five were sentenced to jail to up to 28 years for the anomalous use of P10 million in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) intended for livelihood programs but was diverted to ghost projects in 2007.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The decision was issued on Sept. 15 and made public Monday.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n For graft charges, the five were sentenced to a prison term of six to 10 years and perpetual disqualification to hold public office.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n For malversation, they were convicted from 12 to 18 years and were ordered to indemnify the government P9.6 million, with six percent annual interest until fully paid.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Teves\u2019 case was dismissed following his death in 2019 while former TLRC department manager Francisco Figura was acquitted.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The case against former TLRC director general Antonio Ortiz is archived pending his arrest or surrender.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Records showed MFI, an uncredited and unqualified non-government organization (NGO), was tapped by Teves’s office as implementing project partner on Feb. 27, 2007.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to the Sandigan decision, the endorsement of MFI was done in total disregard of the appropriation law and against the provisions of Republic Act No. 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Sandigan said the TLRC, to which the PDAF of Teves was released, should have implemented the livelihood project but the TLRC transferred the funds to MFI, which is a violation of the 2007 GAA.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The court said Bombeo and the four officials conspired to implement the supposed livelihood project without the legal basis.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY LEX MANALO THE Sandiganbayan has ordered the conviction of a staff member of the late Negros Oriental 3rd District Rep. Herminio Teves and four<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}