The Sandiganbayan First Division has dismissed one of the 44 graft charges filed against former Caloocan City mayor Enrico Echiverri, citing the failure of the prosecution to establish his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The anti-graft court also acquitted former city accountant Ednan Centeno and former city budget officer Jesusa Garcia.
Echiverri’s case pertains to the Caloocan city government’s road and drainage systems improvement projects in 2011.
The former mayor is not yet off the hook at the Sandiganbayan, owing to the P1.4- billion loan he entered with the Land Bank of the Philippines for the city’s infrastructure projects. He allegedly misused P235.65 million of that amount.
Ombudsman prosecutors charged Echiverri and his co-accused of graft for allegedly giving unwarranted benefits to P.B. Grey Construction for the improvement of roads and drainage system in Phase 6, Green Valley, Barangay 178 amounting to P8 million.
The contract was part of the loan that Echiverri agreed to with Landbank on behalf of the city government.
The prosecution cited the Commission on Audit’s findings that that Echiverri failed to secure an approval from the city council to sign an agreement with LBP.
But the Sandiganbayan said the prosecution did not consider the CoA’s reversal of its audit against Echiverri in an en banc decision dated June 19, 2015. The court said the CoA stated that the local government has its own power to implement the projects.
“The above decision of the CoA En Banc bears considerable persuasive effect in the disposition of these cases. Effectively the instant charges have become crippled sans any support to withstand the heavy burden of the constitutional requirement that a prosecution should be based on evidence beyond reasonable doubt to convict,” the anti-graft court said.
“It must be stressed that, strictly speaking, there was actually appropriation ordinance which could serve as authority for the accused mayor to initiate development projects to be funded from the proceeds of the loan agreement with the LBP,” it added.
The anti-graft court found no irregularity when Echiverri and his co-accused tapped P.B. Grey for the project since it passed the requirements to qualify for the contract.
“It appears crystal clear that the prosecution failed to prove the charges in the instant criminal cases with the required quantum of proof to convict at this stage of the proceedings,” the Sandiganbayan said.