Ex-PNB official cleared of graft

MANILA, Philippines — Saying the case has prescribed, the Sandiganbayan has dismissed the graft charges against former Philippine National Bank (PNB) board member Gerardo Sicat over his alleged role in the grant of P200 million in behest loans to cronies of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos 38 years ago.

The anti-graft court’s Special Third Division, headed by Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, said in a ruling dated Nov. 29 that it took the government too long to file the complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman in December 2004 since the alleged crime was discovered in April 1994.

Behest loans, which form part of the public debt, were granted by state banks to private firms upon Marcos’ orders.

The Sandiganbayan decision granted the motion to quash filed by Sicat, who wanted the cases junked on the grounds that the filing of charges went beyond the prescriptive period of 10 years and that he was deprived of his right to substantive and procedural due process because no preliminary investigation was conducted.

Sicat, then Marcos’ minister of economic planning, is now a professor emeritus at the University of the Philippines School of Economics and a columnist for The STAR’s business section.

Citing case records, the Sandiganbayan said the behest loans were granted to Hercules Minerals and Oils Inc. (HMOI) on Dec. 18, 1981 and on March 1, 1982 while the report of the presidential ad hoc fact-finding committee on behest loans was transmitted to the Office of the President and received by Malacañang on April 11, 1994.

The ombudsman identified then HMOI officers Manuel Syquio, Rafael Atayde, Honorio Poblador Jr. and George Scholey as alleged Marcos cronies.

The Sandiganbayan said the prescriptive period should be reckoned from April 11, 1994 “or when the subject transactions were reported” to then president Fidel Ramos.

The anti-graft court said based on the Supreme Court’s rulings, the “offenses in these cases had already prescribed” because the Presidential Commission on Good Government filed its complaint on Dec. 15, 2004, “which is beyond the prescriptive period, or after 10 years and eight months from the date of discovery of the offenses.”