153 years for ex-ARMM governor

The Supreme Court has sentenced the first elected regional governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to 153 years in jail for the illegal disbursement of over P21 million in government funds almost two decades ago.

In its October 19 ruling, the high court upheld with modifications the guilty verdict handed down by the Sandiganbayan on former ARMM Governor Zacaria Candao, his brother and executive secretary Abas Candao and former ARMM disbursing officer Israel Haron.

Abas was meted out a jail term of 731 years while Haron got a 867-year jail term.

In a unanimous decision, the tribunal’s five-member First Division threw out the petition on review for certiorari filed by Candao et al. seeking the reversal of antigraft court’s Oct. 29, 2008 resolution.

“In fine, the Sandiganbayan committed no reversible error in holding that the testimonial and documentary evidence presented by the petitioners failed to overcome the prima facie evidence of misappropriation,” the magistrates said.

“There is, therefore, no merit in petitioners’ argument that the Sandiganbayan erred in not applying the equipoise rule,” the court ruled.

‘Equipoise’ rule

The high court explained that based on the principle of equipoise rule “where the evidence on an issue of fact is in equipoise or there is doubt on which side the evidence preponderates, the party having the burden of proof loses.”

“The equipoise rule finds application if the inculpatory facts and circumstances are capable of two or more explanations, one of which is consistent with the innocence of the accused and the other consistent with his guilt,” the court said.

Chief Justice Renato Corona and Associate Justices Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo and Maria Lourdes Sereno agreed with the decision authored by Associate Justice Martin Villarama Jr.

In sentencing Candao et al., the Sandiganbayan considered the testimony of the lone prosecution witness, Heidi Mendoza, a former whistle-blower and now commissioner of the Commission on Audit (COA).

Mendoza, who spilled the beans on the multimillion-peso diversion fund scam in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, led the team of COA auditors which conducted an expanded audit of the ARMM government’s spending from Aug. 24 to Sept. 1, 1993.

During their audit of the ARMM funds, Mendoza discovered that Candao et al. were responsible for the unlawful release of 52 checks from December 1992 to March 1993 amounting to P21,045,570.64.

Candao, who served as governor of ARMM from 1990 to 1993, signed nine of the questionable checks without the required disbursement vouchers.