Sandiganbayan finds former PCGG chair guilty of graft
Camilo Sabio (left) and wife Marlene talk to reporters after leaving the sala of the Sandiganbayan’s First Division which convicted Sabio of graft. PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER / VINCE F. NONATO
Update
The Sandiganbayan on Thursday sentenced former Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chair Camilo Sabio to imprisonment of 12 to 20 years for irregular vehicle lease deals worth P12.13 million.
The court’s First Division pronounced Sabio, who is turning 82 next month, guilty on two counts of violating Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
“I have nothing to say,” he told reporters after the hearing.
His wife, Marlene, said he would appeal the decision. “Of course, I’m sad. He’s innocent,” she told reporters.
The PCGG was formed after the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the dictator and his cronies.
Lease of 11 vehicles
Sabio and four other PCGG commissioners were accused of graft for leasing 11 vehicles from United Coconut Planters Bank Leasing and Finance Corp.
The agreements—one dated April 18, 2007, and the other undated but entered into in 2009—amounted to P5.39 million and P6.73 million, respectively.
The charges were filed in the Sandiganbayan in 2012.
READ: Ex-PCGG chair Sabio charged with graft for influence peddling
Only Sabio, who represented himself, underwent trial.
The cases against former Commissioners Tereso Javier, Narciso Nario and Nicasio Conti were thrown out in May 2014. Unlike Sabio, they sought the dismissal of the cases because the Ombudsman took too long to investigate them. The other accused, former Commissioner Ricardo Abcede, died of a stroke in April 2012.
In its 20-page decision, the court ruled there was bad faith on Sabio’s part because he failed to undertake the procurement process.
No budget allotment
He was also found to have subjected government funds to “unnecessary expenditure without the preallocation and the necessity for the same.”
The court noted that the PCGG already owned 27 vehicles when it entered into the assailed lease agreements. There was no allotment for the vehicle leases under the PCGG’s approved budget.
“We are left with the incontrovertible conclusion that Sabio was motivated by ‘a dishonest purpose or some moral obliquity and conscious doing of a wrong,’” read the decision penned by Associate Justice Geraldine Faith Econg and concurred in by Associate Justices Efren N. de la Cruz and Bernelito R. Fernandez.
The court allowed P120,000 bail for Sabio while he appeals the verdict.
In April 2016, the court’s Fourth Division acquitted Sabio of graft and malversation charges in connection with the alleged embezzlement of P10.35 million in remittances from Mid-Pasig Land Development Corp. and proceeds from the sale of A. Soriano Corp, as well as P1.6 million in cash advances for his official trip to Malaysia.
Other graft charges
Sabio still faces pending graft charges for alleged influence-peddling.
He allegedly tried to convince his brother, the late Court of Appeals Justice Jose Sabio Jr., to block the issuance of a temporary restraining order against the Government Service Insurance System during the Manila Electric Co. ownership dispute in 2008.
He was also recently charged with embezzling P632,428.03 in litigation-related cash advances.
Sabio ran in the vice presidential election in 1998 and placed eighth in the nine-way race.
He tried to run in the 2016 elections, but the Commission on Elections declared him a nuisance candidate for lack of funds and absence of a political party.
READ: WHAT WENT BEFORE: Sabio case
