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BAGUIO CITY: After almost five years of waiting, an
incumbent punong barangay in Baguio has been acquitted of 15 counts
of malversation of public fund amounting to P232, 685 by the
city’s Branch 60 of the Regional Trial Court.
In his 25-page decision, Baguio
RTC judge Edilberto Claravall ruled that Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo
(formerly Lower Q.M.) Barangay Captain Rocky Aliping is not guilty
of the crimes charged against him on the ground of reasonable doubt.
This developed even as Claravall
also ordered that the cash bonds then posted by Aliping for his
temporary liberty be released to him personally upon receipt of the
court order by concerned agencies.
Aliping, who was then serving as
punong barangay of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, was included as one of the
respondents in 15 counts of malversation of public funds together
with Barangay Treasurer Melanie Perez and Barangay Secretary Mirasol
Cayabyab.
The supposed illegal transaction
involving public funds totaling to P232, 685 was committed in the
months of April, May and June 2003.
Information submitted at the time
said the three officials allegedly had willfully, unlawfully and
feloniously misappropriated and converted into their own personal
use and benefits the public funds intended for their barangay,
adding that the three connived in preparing checks for encashment
without any lawful basis and supporting documents.
Of the three accused, it was
Aliping who maintained his innocence while Perez and Cayabyab
remained at-large.
In his decision, Judge Claravall
said that the prosecution’s evidence fell short of proving that
Aliping conspired with his co-accused in perpetrating the crimes
charged against them.
--Harley F. Palangchao
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