Sorsogon lawmaker convicted of graft

MANILA, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan has found an incumbent congressman, who is also a senior deputy secretary-general of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD party, guilty of graft and sentenced him to six to 10 years in jail.

The anti-graft court also found Sorsogon Rep. Jose Solis guilty of falsification of public documents and meted him a separate jail term of two to six years.

In a 67-page decision, the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division also perpetually disqualified Solis from holding public office as an accessory penalty.

The graft case against Solis stemmed from a land survey anomaly in 1999 when he was chief of the National Mapping and Resource Information Administration (NAMRIA).

He was charged for allegedly certifying that a 4,689-hectare property being claimed by private defendant Florencia Garcia-Diaz is located outside the Fort Magsaysay military reservation in Laur, Nueva Ecija.

Solis’ letter dated Feb. 12, 1998 to then Solicitor General Ricardo Galvez became the basis for the latter and the supposed landowner to enter into a compromise agreement on May 18, 1999 “that gave away an inalienable and unregisterable part of the public domain in favor of a private individual.”

Solis, according to the anti-graft court, “could not extricate himself from liability by the mere reason that he was no longer connected with NAMRIA at the time the compromise agreement was executed.”

“His role in the conspiracy had already been accomplished at the time the letter, dated February 12, 1998, was forwarded to the Office of the Solicitor General,” it added.

Solis was convicted of graft specifically for “entering, on behalf of the government, into any contract or transaction manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the same, whether or not the public officer profited or will profit thereby” which is punishable under Section 3(g) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.”

The Sandiganbayan also convicted private defendant Garcia-Diaz of graft for claiming ownership of the land and benefiting from the transaction.

Four of Solis’ co-accused – NAMRIA’s hydrographic and geodetic surveys department officer-in-charge Salvador Bonnevie; remote sensing and resource data analysis department assistant director Virgilio Fabian Jr.; and senior remote sensing technologists Ireneo Valencia and Arthur Viernes – were acquitted.