Four former officers of the defunct Technology and Livelihood Resource Center (TLRC) have been sentenced to up to 47 years in prison following their conviction for graft and malversation of public funds.
The case was in connection with the irregularities in the use of the Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) or pork barrel of former Davao del Sur Rep. Marc Douglas Cagas IV.
In a decision promulgated on Friday, the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division found former TLRC deputy director general Dennis Cunanan, former group manager and legislative liaison officer Maria Rosalinda Lacsamana, former budget officer Consuelo Lilian Espiritu and former chief accountant Marivic Jover guilty of two counts of graft, simple malversation of public funds and malversation of public funds through falsification of public documents.
The anti-graft court also imposed a fine of P5.4 million each and ordered to jointly return to the government P5.4 million plus legal interest from the filing of the case.
The four were also banned from holding any public office for life. Their retirement or gratuity benefits were likewise forfeited.
The case involved a series of transactions in February 2008 when Cagas endorsed to his chosen non-government organization, the Farmerbusiness Development Corporation (FDC), PDAF funds ranging from P600,000 to P6 million, supposedly for livelihood and development projects.
Cunanan, Lacsamana, Jover and Espiritu signed the disbursement vouchers.
In convicting the four, the anti-graft court said “the unilateral endorsement of funds to FDC violated procurement and other laws and regulations because FDC was not among the listed implementing agencies of PDAF-funded livelihood projects and the endorsement did not go through bidding nor was it a negotiated procurement.”
The transfer of funds also violated circulars of the Department of Budget and Management and the Commission on Audit, the court added.
The court also convicted the four of malversation, saying they consented or allowed FDC to “take or misappropriate the PDAF-drawn public funds instead of fully implementing their livelihood projects.”
FDC was also found to have presented fabricated documents in the form of falsified liquidation reports.
The anti-graft court said the four conspired with Cagas and cannot claim “good faith” as their defense.
For each of the two graft charges, the court imposed the penalty of six years and one month to 10 years imprisonment while for malversation, the penalty imposed was from two years to 10 years and one day.
For the crime of malversation through falsification of public documents, the penalty handed down was 12 years to 17 years, four months and one day.
Cagas, however, will not serve the same prison term since he earlier pleaded guilty to lesser offenses of fraud against public treasury, failure to render accounts and falsification of public documents.
He was sentenced to two years imprisonment and was later allowed to go on probation.
As part of the plea bargain deal approved by the Ombudsman, Cagas paid P13 million in May 2022.