MANILA, Philippines—The Sandiganbayan Second Division on Thursday acquitted actor Joey Marquez and his purchasing officer in the graft case filed against them over the allegedly overpriced ammunition purchased when Marquez was Parañaque mayor in 1996.
The case involving three counts of graft filed by the Ombudsman stemmed from an audit report that said the Parañaque City government bought rounds of ammunition from 1996 to 1998 and overpriced these by about P1.219 million. The purchase was supposedly conducted without public bidding.
The Ombudsman said there was no compliance with the Commission on Audit’s rules on procurement and bidding, giving unwarranted benefit to the supplier VMY Trading and causing damages to government.
The supplier VMY Trading was also said to be not accredited by the police firearms unit.
Marquez and his purchasing officer Ofelia Caunan were accused of overpricing the following purchases of ammunitions – 6,000 rounds of ammunition at P85 each, overpriced by about P408,000 in 1996; 37,500 rounds of ammunition at P34 each, overpriced by P573,750 in 1997; and 3,000 rounds of ammunition at P98 each, overpriced by P237,900.
“The Court hereby finds that the prosecution has failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the guilt of Marquez and Caunan for violation of the (antigraft law) and consequently acquits them of the said charge,” the 61-page decision promulgated Thursday read.
In an interview after the promulgation, Marquez said the charges against him were politically-motivated. He maintained that his signatures were forged in the questioned transactions.
“Marami palang political hazards dito… Kami ang pineke (Turned out there were many political hazards here. We were the ones duped), we don’t have to defend anything because we don’t know anything about what happened,” he said.
The Sandiganbayan Second Division acquitted on Thursday actor Joey Marquez (center) in the graft case filed against him over the allegedly overpriced purchase of rounds of ammunition when he was Parañaque mayor.
Marquez lamented the agony of waiting for the decision in the case that was filed almost a decade ago.
“You can just see the agony of (the) waiting that we did, but still we were patient to wait for justice,” he said.
The actor’s lawyer Efren Dizon said there was forgery on the questioned documents which pinned Marquez in the alleged overpricing.
“We are very confident that … there was actually forgery to secure the acquittal of Mayor Marquez,” Dizon said.
“The Mayor is now a free man,” said his lawyer Rudolf Jurado.
“And single!” interjected the actor, known for his comedic roles in television and movies.
In its decision, the court acknowledged the testimony of a handwriting expert Rhoda Flores who said Marquez’s signatures on the documents were not similar and thus signed by two or three persons, strengthening the accused’s version that his signatures were forged.
“The Court believes that the signatures… on the documents covering the questioned transactions were not really his, thus warranting the inevitable conclusion that he had no participation in the transactions,” the decision said.
The Court also debunked allegations of conspiracy due to the findings on Marquez’s non-participation in the offense.
Meanwhile, on allegations of overpricing, the Court said the audit report failed to pin down Marquez for overpricing because the audit team failed to get a price quotation from the registered ammunition suppliers.
This audit team also failed to canvass prices from the dealers because of the latter’s refusal to give price quotations.
The Court also said the disbursement vouchers covering the procurement of ammunitions in 1996 do not contain descriptions of the artillery. “As such, there was no accurate way by which the audit team could have made a reasonable comparison of the price of items … or could have determined that the ammunitions purchased in 1996 were of the same kind as those subject of these cases,” the decision said.
Questions over the overpricing allegations thus do not give merit to the charge of giving unwarranted benefits to VMY Trading and causing undue injury to government, the court said.
“As a consequence, the amount of unwarranted benefit purportedly gained by VMY Trading, which collaterally proceeds from any undue injury sustained by the government, would have no leg to stand on,” the decision said.
The Court noted that there may have been administrative lapses, but the prosecution failed to prove the graft charge.
“Conviction in these cases would nonetheless be unwarranted due to the failure of the prosecution to prove all the essential elements of the offense charged,” the court said.
The antigraft court then lifted the hold-departure order imposed upon Marquez since 2003. The court also ordered returning the bail Marquez filed for his temporary liberty over the case.
The actor who also used to be a basketball player had been convicted for graft of using government funds to purchase overpriced brooms when he was mayor in 1996 and 1997, until the Supreme Court reversed the Sandiganbayan’s decision in 2009. The antigraft court then cleared Marquez in 2011.
Originally posted: 1:57 PM | Thursday, January 22nd, 2015
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