Sandiganbayan building in Quezon City. INQUIRERFILE PHOTO
The Sandiganbayan has cleared former Postmaster General Maria Josefina dela Cruz of the charge of unlawfully appointing a department manager of the Philippine Postal Corp. (PhilPost) in 2013.
In a decision promulgated on Oct. 10, the Special Fifth Division said that allegations that Dela Cruz’s appointment of Esther Cabigao was irregular were “unfounded and lack basis.”
The antigraft court noted that the appointment of Cabigao was “borne out of necessity or exigency of the service due to the vacancy” that could have disrupted PhilPost’s operations if left unfilled.
Dela Cruz was accused of two counts of graft and two counts of unlawful appointment under the Revised Penal Code for giving “unwarranted benefits” when she hired Cabigao in November 2013 as a Department Manager III despite her supposed lack of civil service eligibility and educational requirements.
The first count was for naming Cabigao to the post supposedly without the required “education, training and experience” under Civil Service Commission (CSC) Memorandum Circular No. 13, while the second count was for appointing her when she did not have a master’s degree.
The court, however, ruled that the prosecution “failed to establish beyond doubt” that Dela Cruz violated Republic Act No. 3019 as well as Article 244 of the Revised Penal Code by appointing Cabigao.
No evidence
“The prosecution had not offered any evidence nor attempted to show that there was indeed a ‘qualified applicant’ or at least another person who would have been qualified and interested to even simply apply for the job,” read the 38-page decision.
It also pointed out that, assuming there was indeed a violation of CSC rules, “this, at most, could only yield to an administrative liability.”
”A violation of civil service laws is not tantamount to a violation of RA 3019 absent proof beyond reasonable doubt,” the Sandiganbayan said.
It also cited the same 2011 circular in rejecting the prosecution’s allegations, saying that agency heads “are allowed to prescribe qualification standards suitable to the requirements of the agency.”
The charges against Dela Cruz were filed in the Office of the Ombudsman in June 2016. She originally had nine other coaccused in the original complaint, but the case against them was dropped by the Ombudsman because the crimes they allegedly committed were not established.
Dela Cruz was the first female governor of Bulacan from 1998 to 2007 and later served as postmaster general from 2017 to 2019.