5 years after Sandiganbayan conviction :SC clears ex-NPC official

Five years after he was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Sandiganbayan for graft and corruption charges, a former operations manager of the National Power Corporation was cleared of any culpability by the Supreme Court.

In a decision promulgated last April 24, the Supreme Court second division reversed the ruling of the Sandiganbayan, saying the principle used by the anti-graft court in ruling against Engr. Ernesto Z. Guiduquio reportedly does not apply to his case.

The decision was penned by Justice Dante Tinga.

“The findings of facts of the Sandiganbayan are not sufficiently established by evidence, leaving serious doubts in our minds regarding the culpability of petitioner Guiduquio. In sum, we find that the prosecution failed to prove by evidence beyond reasonable doubt the guilt of herein petitioner,” the decision reads.

Guiduquio was accused of violating the provisions of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for “unlawfully and feloniously” splitting into 12 schedules or phases of works the “pakyaw” contracts and job orders, making it appear that the cost of each project does not exceed P100,000 and all the projects were awarded to only one contractor .

The complaint states that the 12 schedules of the construction project s were executed by Guiduquio and another Napocor official despite the fact that it was outside their scope, and awarded the contract to a contractor without the benefit of a public bidding.

The Sandiganbayan ruled that Guiduquio violated the provisions of the anti-graft law when he awarded the “pakyaw” contracts without public bidding and paid for the contracts despite alleged deficiencies in the construction works.

But contrary to the Sandiganbayan’s findings, the Supreme Court said the bidding “was reasonably dispensed with due to the urgency of the matter.”

The SC pointed out that in the early 1990’s, the country suffered from a crippling power crisis with power outages lasting up to 12 hours daily. At that time, power generation was badly needed.

To address the problem, Napocor sought to attract investors in power plant operations by providing them with incentives, one of which was through NPC’s assumption of payment of their taxes. For the same purpose, Napocor reconditioned existing power plants and put up new power plants in small islands.

The case against Guiduquio stemmed from the construction of power plants in three islands in Cebu - Olango in Lapulapu City and Guintarcan and Doong in Bantayan Island.

The Supreme Court also dismissed the contention that Quiduquio’s paid the workers of the contract amount even before the completion of the projects because Guiduquio reportedly proved that the workers still continued to work and completed the projects even after receiving payment.

“The construction works were eventually completed proving lack of injury to the government. Significant of all is the lack of proof that petitioner committed the supposedly prohibited acts with manifest partiality and bad faith,” the Supreme Court said.

“The High Court finds that petitioner, in causing the payment, was moved by sympathy for the plight of the workers, even while imposing safeguard measures for the government which belies claim of partiality,” the Supreme Court further said. – Rene U. Borromeo/JMO (THE FREEMAN)