Ex-Red Cross head cleared in ‘theft’ case

MANILA, Philippines–After seven years of litigation, a Quezon City court has acquitted the former governor of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) and chair of the PNRC Quezon City chapter of a 2007 theft charge.

The case involved a “stolen” computer central processing unit (CPU) worth P17,000—but it also mirrored the leadership row wracking the humanitarian organization at the time.

In a recent ruling, Judge Tita Marilyn Villordon of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 224 said accused Dante Liban, who is also former Quezon City representative, presented an intricate and logical explanation to refute the “very simple story” by the prosecution about a PNRC employee openly stealing office property on Liban’s orders.

The theft case stemmed from the complaint filed by the PNRC led by former Sen. Richard Gordon in January 2007 accusing Liban and a former Quezon City Red Cross youth coordinator, Jennifer Esquillo, of stealing the CPU by moving it from the PNRC-Quezon City office to the Red Cross Disaster Management Chapter on the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman in September 2006.

Esquillo told the court that the transfer was ordered by Liban, then board chair of the organization’s Quezon City chapter.

In his defense, Liban said he ordered the transfer of the CPU, which contained sensitive information, in view of the controversy then hounding the Quezon City Red Cross board. The transfer was made after Gordon declared that the Liban-headed board was not legitimate.

The judge noted that “he (Liban) just secured the data from the CPU considering that there was a difference of opinion on the status of the Quezon City Chapter Board at that time.”

“For him, securing the data or information was the right thing to do since the equipment contained the board proceedings or discussions which must be saved,” Villordon said.

In acquitting Liban and Esquillo, the court said neither of them had any intent to gain when the CPU was brought to another office of the Red Cross Quezon City Chapter. “There was reason for (Liban) to instruct (Esquillo) to transfer the said CPU, which was for the purpose of safekeeping the said property and securing the data contained therein and not to personally appropriate the same for themselves.”