Ex-Biliran mayor convicted of perjury

The Sandiganbayan has convicted a former Biliran mayor for perjury in his asset disclosures—not because he misdeclared his wealth but because he named the wrong spouse.

The court’s Fifth Division sentenced former Cabucgayan Mayor Arnelito Garing to 16 months in jail for perjuring himself in his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) for 2000 and 2001.

In the sworn statements, Garing identified his wife as Maurilina Oledan Garing, but it later turned out that he was actually married to Generosa Arcenio Dosal who, he said, had been missing since September 1994, barely 17 months after they were married.

The court said Garing made a “willful and deliberate assertion of falsehood” despite his argument that the SALN did not explicitly require him to name his legal spouse and not his “common-law” wife.

“As municipal mayor, he should have known that his marriage persisted despite the years of alleged absence of Generosa,” read the decision penned by Associate Justice Rafael R. Lagos with the concurrence of Associate Justices Reynaldo P. Cruz and Maria Theresa V. Mendoza-Arcega.

The court noted that Garing only filed a petition to declare Generosa presumptively dead on Dec. 19, 2005, a month after a criminal complaint was filed on Nov. 16, 2005.