The Ombudsman finally scored a win in the cases it filed against retired Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot, a former comptroller of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The government earlier lost the P428-million tax the Ombudsman filed against Ligot and his wife Erlinda at the Court of Tax Appeals.
In addition, the Ligots have also filed a motion for the dismissal of the P55-million forfeiture case against them due to the alleged forum shopping of government prosecutors.
On Friday, the Sandiganbayan declared Ligot guilty of six counts of perjury for the false declarations in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth for 10 years and sentenced him to one-year imprisonment for each count.
But even if the sentence were to be carried out consecutively (one after another), Ligot will still have to serve for only six years and is thus qualified to seek probation. Thus, he will not serve a single-day in prison.
The Ombudsman originally indicted Ligot for 11 counts of perjury but he was cleared of two counts due to the failure of the prosecution to prove his guilt, while the three other counts were dismissed “on the ground of prescription,” meaning the period within which they should have been filed has expired.
Ligot was ordered to post a P72,000 bail in case he appeals the verdict.
Ligot was the AFP deputy chief of staff for comptrollership (J-6) from July 1999 to March 2001.
The Ombudsman has filed several cases against Ligot and members of his family for allegedly amassing P135,280,822.11 in unexplained wealth, including several hectares of land in Bukidnon and Rizal, high-end condominium units, houses and lots in the United States, motor vehicles, and millions of pesos in bank placements and deposits.
The anti-graft court’s decision said, “The evidence thus far presented all indicate that accused Ligot willfully and deliberately asserted a falsehood in his SALN by consciously and knowingly omitting in his SALN the properties he knows to be in his and his wife’s name.”
The Sandiganbayan explained, however, that it had to dismiss the three counts of perjury against Ligot in connection with his SALNs for 1993, 1994, 1995 after the eight-year prescription period lapsed. It said the complaint was only filed at the Ombudsman in 2005.
In addition, Ligot was acquitted on two counts since the prosecution failed to prove Erlinda’s brother, Edgardo Yambao, acted as a dummy of the couple.