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By Jomar Canlas Reporter
OMBUDSMAN Maria Merceditas
Navarro-Gutierrez on Tuesday indicted before the Sandiganbayan for
graft charges Philippine Sports Commission PSC Commissioner Ricardo
Garcia and a former commissioner for failure to liquidate cash
advances amounting to almost P400,000.
According to Gutierrez’s
22-page resolution, she ordered the filing of charges against Garcia
and Ma. Amparo Gana Lim, for violation of Article 217 of the Revised
Penal Code and Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 (Anti-Graft and
Corrupt Practices Act).
Based on the investigation of the
Ombudsman, it was discovered that Garcia and Lim received the
amounts of P238,400 and P161,150, respectively, from the PSC as
their transportation allowance for the 21st Southeast Asian Games in
Malaysia in 2001 .
It opined that despite the
evidence Garcia presented to rebut all the allegations, the fact
remains that he “failed to explain the whereabouts of the amount
he received from the PSC in connection with his duty as Commissioner
of PSC. Hence, the presumption that he used for his personal comfort
the amount he received from PSC still subsists.” Furthermore, the
Ombudsman observed that Garcia “only refunded the amount of
P120,000 after three years from the time he received it in 2001.”
As to the case of Lim, the Office
of the Ombudsman said that “in view of her failure to account or
submit a liquidation report of the said cash advances, the
presumption arises that she malversed the missing funds involved in
the pending incident and used it for her personal comfort.”
“The blatant/manifest disregard
of Garcia and Lim to liquidate or show proof as to how the
above-said amounts were spent is a clear indication of evident bad
faith, causing a breach of their sworn duty and eventually undue
injury to public service,” the ruling says.
Based on the records, it was on
August 14, 2004, when the Commission on Audit sent the two officials
a demand letter reminding them to settle the abovementioned
accountabilities but they failed to comply, prompting the COA to
file a case against them.
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