Ronnie Ricketts acquitted of graft over seized DVDs
Ronnie Ricketts
The Supreme Court has acquitted actor and former Optical Media Board (OMB) chair Ronnie Ricketts of graft over a questionable raid of pirated digital video discs (DVDs) and video compact discs (VCDs) in Quiapo, Manila, in 2010.
The Supreme Court’s Second Division reversed the Sandiganbayan’s March 15, 2019, guilty verdict on Ricketts, who was sentenced to six to eight years’ imprisonment.
But the five-member division affirmed the Sandiganbayan’s guilty verdict on OMB computer operator Glenn Perez, who was sentenced to the same prison term and perpetually disqualified from holding public office.
The Supreme Court ruled that the evidence against Ricketts was “mere hearsay” while Perez was “caught red-handed.”
Ricketts, Perez and three OMB directors were charged by the Ombudsman with graft for allegedly causing the return of over 120 boxes of confiscated pirated DVDs and VCDs to their manufacturer, Sky High Marketing, and for not filing any complaints against the persons arrested in the Quiapo raid.
In 2019, the Sandiganbayan acquitted the three OMB directors but convicted Ricketts and Perez, who appealed before the Supreme Court.
In a decision dated March 16, 2022, that was uploaded to its website on July 28, the Supreme Court Second Division said the prosecution failed to prove Ricketts’ “participation in the crime beyond reasonable doubt.”
“At the very least, the testimony of the security guard should not have been made the sole basis to conclude that Ricketts intentionally took part in the planning, preparation and execution of the alleged conspiracy to defraud the government by ordering Perez to release the seized items,” the high court said.Perez, on the other hand, was “caught red-handedly taking out the seized items without written authorization,” the Supreme Court said.
“Perez’s justifications for his actions are irrelevant since the mere act of taking out and returning the seized items without written authority from the OMB amounts to giving an unwarranted benefit to the owner of the seized items,” it continued.
The Supreme Court acknowledged that, “as a rule, findings of fact of the Sandiganbayan, as a trial court, are accorded great weight and respect.”
