THE ‘Lady Justice’ statue stands as a powerful symbol of justice, often depicted as a blindfolded woman holding scales and a sword.
This imagery represents the principle that justice is impartial and blind to social status, wealth, or power. The statue’s blindfold also signifies objectivity, while the scales represent the weighing of evidence and fairness in judgment.
The sword symbolizes the enforcement of justice and the authority of the law.
In the case of our judicial system, Lady Justice may be blind, but she does not forget, even after 25 years.
Case in point is that after two-and-a half-decades, former officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways have been sentenced to more than 300 years in prison for multiple counts of graft and estafa.
The cases filed against the former public works officials had to do with the fictitious repair of the agency’s service vehicles from 2000 to 2001.
In a 122-page decision promulgated on March 14, the Sandiganbayan Seventh Division found a former assistant director of the agency guilty of 22 counts of graft under Republic Act 3019 and 22 counts of the complex crime of estafa through falsification of public documents under the Revised Penal Code.
Also convicted were a former DPWH accountant, fiscal controller and three supply officers, along with two private respondents.
The Seventh Division sentenced the former DPWH officials and the private respondents to up to eight years in prison for each count of graft, with the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
They were also ordered to pay a fine of P5,000 for each count of the offense.
For the estafa complaint, the former DPWH officials and the private respondents were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. They were also ordered to jointly pay the government P1.9 million in civil liability.
With their conviction for multiple counts of the offenses, the former DPWH officials were meted up to 300 years in prison.
The country’s penal justice system, however, limits the maximum period of imprisonment for a felony to 40 years, as provided under Article 70 of the Revised Penal Code.
The cases were filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2013 over the “ghost” repairs of DPWH service vehicles and the fictitious procurement of car spare parts.
The Ombudsman probe showed that 4,406 checks amounting to P82.322 million were issued as payments for the supposed repairs of vehicles and purchase of car spare parts using fictitious receipts and other reimbursement documents.
“The conspiracy of the defendants is clear as day, and is made even clearer by the fact that together, they repeated this process again and again,” said the Sandiganbayan.
“They all joined in a web of conspiracy, devised a way to rob the government. Funds were flushed out of the government coffers with nowhere to go, but the concerted effort to brook the claims for reimbursement,” the anti-graft court pointed out.
It is true that justice delayed is justice denied, but it appears, in this particular case, not all the time.