SC upholds NBI cashier's jail term

The Supreme Court upheld a Sandiganbayan decision slapping a former cashier of the Cebu City office of the National Bureau of Investigation of up to 17 years of imprisonment for malversation of public funds.

In its August 9 decision, the SC's Third Division chaired by Associate Justice Artemio Panganiban affirmed the conviction of Pamela Chan after it turned down her petition to reverse the Sandiganbayan decision.

Aside from the imprisonment, the SC also sustained the decision of the anti-graft court banning Chan from government employment.

During a surprise auditing in 1996, the Commission on Audit discovered that there was a shortage in Chan's collections compared to the amount stated in her report.

The COA's original complaint stated that Chan embezzled about P333,360 in government funds, but during the pendency of the case in court, Chan remitted P89,760.

Chan, however, claimed that her substitute cashier, Delza Bas, was responsible for the shortage in the amount of her collections because Bas asked for a "vale" or cash loan despite the fact that it was against the law. Bas also remitted P60,787.

Chan and Bas were able to remit over P150,547 to the government in their effort to settle the case. But since then, Chan failed to remit the remaining P182,812.

The SC also criticized Chan for allowing her fellow NBI personnel, including the regional director, to secure cash loans out of her collections from clearance applications.

"To tolerate such practice is to give a license to every disbursing officer to conduct a lending operation with the use of public funds," the SC said.

The COA repeatedly barred all government personnel from accepting cash loans from disbursing officers because such transaction is against the law.

According to the SC, although Chan did not personally use the missing funds, it was not a valid reason not to exculpate her from the criminal liability. - Rene U. Borromeo