Sarangani fiscal, aide convicted of direct bribery

MANILA, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan has found the provincial prosecutor of Sarangani and his personal assistant guilty of direct bribery under Article 210 of the Revised Penal Code.

The anti-graft court’s Fifth Division sentenced prosecutor Alfredo Barcelona Jr. and his aide, Violeto Novio, to a maximum of five years, five months and 11 days in jail and ordered each to pay a fine of P15,000.

The Sandiganbayan, in a 23-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo, also imposed upon Barcelona the additional penalty of special temporary disqualification.

After eight years of trial, prosecutors of the Office of the Ombudsman led by Assistant Special Prosecutor III Jeofferson Toribio proved that Barcelona connived with Novio in demanding and receiving P5,000 from Ludivico Ripdos, then the police chief of Glan town, in exchange for the latter’s exclusion as respondent in a criminal case filed before the prosecutor’s office.

On July 26, 2004, Novio was arrested in an entrapment by National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents.

After his arrest, Novio gave a sworn statement that Barcelona had ordered him to receive the money.

In its ruling, the Sandiganbayan held that there was competent evidence to sufficiently prove that Barcelona and Novio conspired with each other.

On Barcelona’s claim that he merely instructed Novio to get the records of a pending case from Ripdos, the anti-graft court found “no credible reason why Novio (a personal friend of Barcelona), a person without authority and who was not even employed in the provincial prosecutor’s office, was ordered by Barcelona to get (the) records from Ripdos’ office.”

The Sandiganbayan also found it “puzzling why Barcelona did not ask for the records from the NBI when Barcelona admitted that on July 26, 2004 he had knowledge that the records were with the NBI.”