Court junks PNP exec’s bid to be dropped from graft case

The Sandiganbayan has denied a police narcotics officer’s motion to be dropped from a graft case connected to a controversial firearms license deal when he headed the Philippine National Police licensing division.

In his April 12 motion for exclusion from the case, Senior Supt. Eduardo Acierto, officer in charge of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group, cited a Court of Appeals’ decision in  2016 to set aside his  2015 dismissal by the Ombudsman and to reinstate him in the service.

If the evidence could not meet the threshold required for an administrative sanction, the less it would hold in a criminal case, he said.

The court, however, ruled on June 21 that administrative and criminal liabilities were separate and that evidence could still be added to back the criminal case.

It said it is coequal to the CA and not bound by the CA’s decisions. Acierto’s guilt depends on the evidence to be presented in a trial, it added.

As chief of the Firearms and Explosives Office Firearms and Licensing Division in 2011, Acierto was included in the graft case in connection with the exclusive license delivery contract awarded to Werfast Documentary Agency Inc. despite the company’s alleged failure to meet various requirements.