Falsification charges vs sacked gov dismissed
THE Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division has dismissed the two falsification cases filed against dismissed Southern Leyte Gov. Damian Mercado for falsification of entries in a personal data sheet
( PDS) and the Elective Local Official’s Profile Directory (ELOPD) in Data Capture Form (DCF).
In a 10-page resolution promulgated on May 21, the court granted Mercado’s plea to nullify the charge sheets.
“The task of the Ombudsman is simply to verify if indeed accused intentionally falsified his PDS and ELOPD by declaring that he was a civil engineer. The issue was overly simple enough that a prima facie determination should not have taken ten (10) long years to resolve,” the court said in part.
“Where, as in the instant case, there is an inordinate delay of 10 years in the investigation of the complaint from March 31, 2008 by the Office of the Ombudsman until the informations were eventually filed in this court on February 23, 2018, the right of accused Mercado to speedy disposition of the case takes precedence over the right of the State to prosecute,” it added.
“Wherefore, in light of the foregoing, the motions to quash are granted and, accordingly, these criminal cases against accused Damian Gaviola Mercado are hereby dismissed. The hold departure orders issued against him are lifted and set aside,” the court ruled.
In filing the cases in February, the Office of the Ombudsman alleged that Mercado made it appear in Civil Service Commission (CSC) Form 212 or PDS that he has a civil engineering degree from the University of the Visayas.
It also alleged that he failed “to indicate the period/s when he completed his elementary education at the Maasin Central School and his secondary education at the University of the Visayas, despite his undertaking in the same CSC Form 212 that he personally accomplished it and it contained ‘true, correct and complete statement’ in accordance with law.”
The Office of the Ombudsman also alleged that Mercado made it appear in the ELOPD in the DCF that he submitted to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) that he finished his elementary education in 1971 and that he was a civil engineer, when he supposedly graduated from Maasin Central School in 1968 and supposedly did not acquire the engineering degree.
According to Mercado, the Office of the Ombudsman received the letter-complaint on March 7, 2008 and it was referred to and received by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas on March 31, 2008.
The court said it took six years from March 31, 2008 for the Public Assistance and Corruption Prevention Office-Field Investigation Group to file a formal complaint-affidavit on April 12, 2014.
According to the court, “the prosecution miserably failed to adduce valid reasons for the delay and convince the court why the instant case should not be dismissed given the 10-year period of delay.”
“The prosecution’s argument that there are considerations why the factfinding investigation phase should not be included in reckoning whether or not the right of the accused to speedy disposition of cases have been violated has been rejected by the Supreme Court ruling in the 2016 case of Torres vs. Sandiganbayan, that the speedy disposition of cases covers the period of conducting the preliminary investigation, and all stages to which the accused is subjected to including factfinding investigations conducted prior to the preliminary investigation proper,” the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division said.
Associate Justice Rafael Lagos, who leads the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division, penned the resolution, which was concurred in by Associate Justices Maria Theresa Mendoza-Arcega and Maryann Corpus-Mañalac.