Ex-Caloocan mayor cleared of corruption
Former Caloocan City Mayor Enrico Echiverri (Photo from his Facebook page)
MANILA, Philippines — Former Caloocan City Mayor Enrico Echiverri was acquitted of graft charges by the Sandiganbayan on Tuesday over the allegedly anomalous purchase of life insurance for the city’s barangay officials and “tanod.”
In a 90-page decision on June 13, the antigraft court’s Sixth Division also cleared Echiverri’s coaccused of the graft charges, including Russel Ramirez, the former city administrator and Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) chairperson; former city accountant Edna Centeno; former city treasurer Evelina Garma; and former budget officer and BAC member Jesusa Garcia.
Centeno and Garcia were also cleared by the court of falsification of public documents.
This was in connection with the graft charges filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2018 involving the purchase of group life insurance policies for barangay officials and tanod in Caloocan City from Beneficial Life Insurance Co. Inc. amounting to around P30 million.
According to the Ombudsman, the selection of the insurance company did not undergo any public bidding and had no authorization from the city council.
In clearing Echiverri and former city officials, the court said the prosecution failed to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
“In these cases, other than the bare assertion that the accused conspired with one another, neither direct nor circumstantial evidence show[s] concerted acts by and among the accused pointing towards the accomplishment of the same unlawful purpose,” read the decision penned by Associate Justice Kevin Narce B. Vivero.
The two other members of the Sixth Division—Associate Justices Sarah Jane Fernandez, the division chair, and Karl Miranda—concurred with Vivero.
The court also said that the element of supposed conspiracy among the former city officials was not present and was not established during the prosecution’s presentation of evidence.
“The evidentiary facts must be proved by the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt on the strength of its evidence and without solace from the weakness of the defense,” the court said.
According to the court, the 15 witnesses and the additional 11 rebuttal witnesses failed to convince them of the crime supposedly committed by Echiverri and the others, with some of them admitting they have no personal knowledge of the transaction.
“Trust is established not by the number of witnesses but by the quality of their testimonies,” the court added. “Their (the prosecution’s witnesses) inane litanies dull one’s credulity.”
