THE Sandiganbayan on Monday sentenced Laguna Lake Development Authority general manager Nereus Acosta to six to 10 years in jail and barred him perpetually from holding public office for misusing his pork barrel funds when he was still congressman in 2002.
The Fourth Division of the anti-corruption court found Acosta guilty beyond reasonable doubt of graft for giving undue preference and advantage to the Bukidnon Vegetable Producers Cooperative, in which his mother, former Manolo town mayor Socorro Acosta, was the director.
Acosta, a Liberal Party member and presidential adviser on environmental protection, was acquitted of two other graft cases, however.
Acosta’s mother Socorro was also convicted in the same graft suit, and was also convicted for approving financial assistance to BVPC that was funded by the congressman’s pork barrel funds.
The charges against Acosta arose from his alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam in which the Priority Development Assistance Funds allotted to lawmakers were siphoned off through ghost or non-existent projects.
Acosta was accused of graft in two other cases, but was acquitted.
The first case arose from the alleged transfer of a P2.5-million solar tunnel dryer purchased through Acosta’s pork barrel allocation to the Bukidnon Integrated Network of Home Industries Inc., whose incorporators included his father Juan and his aunt, Maria Nemia Bornidor. The equipment was intended for the use of Talakag town.
In the second case, Acosta was charged with graft for giving P2.5-million financial assistance to Binhi with funds coursed through the Talakag municipal government.
Acosta’s conviction came as an association of fishermen and the Save Laguna Lake Movement slammed President Benigno Aquino III for creating an inter-agency technical committee to implement the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike Project.
“President Aquino is making sure it’s all systems go for the LLEDP before leaving Malacañang. He is making sure, he is fully paid to these giant businesses who funded his election campaign last 2010. But also this time, he is begging for funding and political support for his heir apparent Mar Roxas in the coming presidential race,” Ronnie Molera, SLLM spokesperson said.
“The LLEDP is a serious threat to our lives and livelihoods. Laguna de Bay used to be a rich fishing ground, sustaining the everyday lives of the people living along the lake. But because of the various destructive projects implemented by the past and current administration, the lake is now on its deathbed,” Molera said.
The LLEDP is Aquino’s biggest project under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) amounting to P122.8B.
“Rehabilitation is our solution to the Laguna Lake woes, not LLEDP. We will continue to expose and oppose this wholesale destruction on Laguna de Bay until it is totally scrapped,” the groups said in a statement. With Sandy Araneta