Sandiganbayan dismisses charges against ex-Sol Gen Devanadera

The Sandiganbayan's special Fifth Division on Tuesday dismissed the graft and malversation charges filed against former Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera and three other defendants. Devanadera and former head executive assistant Rolando B. Faller were alleged to have unlawfully received P100,000 and P30,000, respectively, from the GSIS special assessment fee. Also, co-defendants and then assistant government corporate counsel Jose Marie Capili and former accountant Divina Gracia F. Cruz were alleged to have illegally allowed Devanadera to draw P500,000 and Faller P200,000 in attorneys’ fees from the special assessment of the GSIS. But in its nine-page majority ruling penned by Associate Justice Alex L. Quiroz, a majority of graft court dismissed the of four counts of graft and four counts of malversation filed by the Office of the Ombudsman against Devanadera in 2011. Associate Justices Roland B. Jurado and Samuel R. Martires concurred with the ponente while Associate Justices Maria Cristina J. Cornejo and Oscar C. Herrera Jr. dissented. The majority held that the graft information did not allege a prohibited act by Devanadera in the performance of her official duties. It pointed out that the amended information cited a provision of the Administrative Code that did not expressly prohibit payment of special assessment fees to Devanadera and Faller. It stressed that even the Commission on Audit, in a 2009 report, acknowledged that there was an absence of guidelines on accounting and utilization of attorney’s fees, special assessments and special arbitration fees. “Absent therefore any allegation in the Amended Informations that accused Devanadera’s act of disbursing attorney’s fees from the Special Assessment Fees is explicitly prohibited by any law, rule or regulation, the amended informations… are fatally defective for having failed to allege an essential element (of a graft offense),” the Sandiganbayan declared. Likewise, it noted that there was no imputation of any shortage of public fund or property or any allegation that Devanadera was required to account for or to return the funds she received and disbursed. At the same time, the court gave weight to Devanadera’s presentation of an “accountability clearance” from the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel showing that she was cleared of all “money, property and/or other accountabilities” when she left the office in 2007. — DVM, GMA News