Ex-DepEd exec gets 27 years over missing teachers’ salaries

MANILA, Philippines — A former regional director of the Department of Education (DepEd) has been sentenced to up to 27 years in prison in connection with missing funds amounting to P6.16 million intended for the salaries of teachers in 2007.

Former Zamboanga peninsula director Jesus Nieves was found guilty of graft and malversation of public funds, the Sandiganbayan’s First Division said in a 32-page decision promulgated on Tuesday.

Nieves was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for graft and up to 17 years for malversation.

The court ordered his perpetual disqualification from public office and to pay a fine of P6.16 million, which is equivalent to the amount of public funds found to have been malversed.

Former DepEd Region 9 chief accountant Marilou Tolosa was acquitted for failure of the prosecution to establish her participation in the crime.

In filing the complaint, the Office of the Ombudsman said Nieves approved the transfer of the amount from the DepEd-Region 9’s payroll account with the Philippine Veterans Bank to its special trust fund account in the same bank under the name Belgian Integrated Agrarian Reform Support Program.

The prosecution said the trust fund account should have long been closed as the special project for which it was opened was completed in 2003.

“He facilitated the transfer of funds to an empty account… the drawing of a check in same amount on the same day of the transfer then the encashment of the check four days later,” the court ruling read.

The amount remained “unremitted, unrestituted and unaccounted for,“ the court said.