Ex-Sibugay vice gov gets 120 years in P600,000 aid scam

The Sandiganbayan has meted out a prison term of 120 to 194 years on former Zamboanga Sibugay Vice Gov. Eugenio Famor over the misuse of P593,500 on nonexistent beneficiaries of the government’s Aid to the Poor Program in 2002.

In a decision dated Feb. 2, the court’s First Division found Famor guilty of seven counts each of graft and malversation through falsification.

He was also ordered to pay a fine equivalent to the misused funds.

Famor’s sentence could still be reduced, as the court applied the so-called three-fold rule, which capped the maximum duration at thrice the length of the most severe penalty. —Vince F. Nonato