Supreme Court affirms conviction of ex-Eastern Samar gov, jail warden

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the conviction of a former Eastern Samar governor and provincial jail warden for the unauthorized transfer of a former mayor facing murder charges from the jail to the governor’s residence in 2000.

In a decision released yesterday, the SC’s First Division affirmed an earlier ruling of the Sandiganbayan that found former governor Ruperto Ambil Jr. and provincial jail warden Alexandrino Apelado guilty of violating Republic Act 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act) and sentenced both to imprisonment.

The SC said the anti-graft court was correct in ruling that the two former officials “acted with manifest partiality and evident bad faith and caused undue injury to the government by giving unwarranted benefits to a private party” when they transferred former mayor Francisco Adalim of Taft town, Eastern Samar from the provincial jail to Ambil’s house for 85 days without a necessary court order.

“When (Ambil and Apelado) transferred Mayor Adalim from the provincial jail and detained him at Ambil’s residence, they accorded such privilege to Adalim, not in his official capacity as a mayor, but as a detainee charged with murder,” stated the ruling penned by Associate Justice Martin Villarama Jr.

The SC junked the petition of Ambil and Apelado seeking a reversal of the Sandiganbayan ruling.

It said the two former officials were unable to establish the existence of any risk to Adalim’s safety in the jail, adding that a court order for the transfer was indispensable.

Records show that Ambil and Apelado ordered the transfer of Adalim in 2000 due to imminent threats on the mayor’s security in the jail since his sister, then the district attorney, had sent many inmates to the same jail.

But the Sandiganbayan ruled that Ambil and Apelado gave unwarranted benefits to Adalim in violation of both Section 3 (e) of RA 3019 and the rules of criminal procedure.

It sentenced Ambil to an indeterminate penalty of imprisonment for nine years and eight months to 12 years and four months.

Apelado, for his part, was meted six years and one month to nine years and eight months due to incomplete justifying circumstance of obedience to a superior order.