THE Sandiganbayan on Thursday sentenced five former Finance department officials to a 42-year jail term for multiple counts of graft raps for the illegal issuance of tax credit certificates (TCCs) to unqualified firms in 1997 and 1998.
Sentenced by the anti-graft court’s First Division for seven counts of graft were Finance’s one-stop inter-agency tax credit and duty drawback center deputy executive director Uldarico Andutan and garment division reviewer A private defendant, Kuldip Singh, an executive of J.K. Apparel Manufacturing Inc. and United Apparel, was also convicted.
Each of them were sentenced to 42 years of imprisonment.
The anti-graft court also directed them to reimburse the Bureau of Treasury P9,699,639 equivalent to the amount defrauded from the government because of the unlawfully issued TCCs.
Three other finance personnel, one-stop shop tax specialists Lucila Cueto, Galdys Olaño and Irene Magbojos, were also found guilty of two counts of graft.
They were sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment.
The Sandiganbayan gave credit to the testimony of prosecution witnesses that the TCCs were granted to the garment firm despite the submission of photocopies of required documents.
In addition, the anti-graft court ruled there was no basis for the grant of tax credits to the applicant firm for failure to observe the rules requiring submission of complete and original documents including bank credit memoranda, delivery receipts and sales invoices.
“By granting J.K. Apparel and United Apparel tax credits when none should have been given, the conspirators unjustifiably reduced the government coffer. Thus, undue injury was caused to the government in the amount indicated in the tax credit certificates issued without valid basis,” the court’s resolution read.
Former undersecretary Antonio Belicena, the principal accused in all of the cases, was suffering from dementia due to old age in March 2014 based on the evaluation of the National Center for Mental Health. Charges against him have been archived.