2 generals, 7 others cleared of corruption

Facade of the Sandiganbayan in Quezon City

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has acquitted retired Lt. Gen. Gregorio Camiling Jr. and eight others of corruption after government lawyers failed to prove their charge that a P5.1-million procurement contract for combat clothing in 2003 was anomalous.

The antigraft court’s Third Division promulgated the acquittal on April 8 in a decision penned by Associate Justice Ronald Moreno and concurred in by Presiding Justice and division chair Amparo Cabotaje-Tang and Associate Justice Bernelito Fernandez.

With the acquittal, the court also released the bail bond the respondents posted for provisional liberty and lifted the hold departure order against Camiling and his co-accused.

Apart from Camiling, also acquitted were Brig. Gen. Severino Estrella, Col. Cesar Guzman Santos, Col. Jessie Mario Dosado, Col. Barmel Zumel, Capt. George Cabreros, Col. Cyrano Aglugub Austria, lawyer Editha Santos and Rolando Minel.

Estrella was then the head of the Army Support Command while Santos, Dosado, Zumel, and Cabreros were then members of the Philippine Army’s bids and awards committee. Minel was the chief accountant.

They were all charged before the Sandiganbayan in 2016 for crimes that were supposedly committed in 2003, a time span of 13 years.

Government lawyers charged them with one count of violating Republic Act No. 3019, or the anti-graft law, and six counts of falsification of public documents under the Revised Penal Code. But the charges were filed four years after a fire razed the documents relating to the case.

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