Ex-Laguna mayor gets up to 18 years for malversation

A former municipal mayor in Laguna province has been found guilty of malversation for failing to return a P500,000 cash advance released to him in 2006.

Although Domingo G. Panganiban, a former mayor of Sta. Cruz town, returned the amount on staggered basis through salary deductions and conversion of his terminal leave pay from 2006 to 2007, the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division still found him criminally liable for failing to produce the entire sum upon demand by the Commission on Audit on August 16, 2006.

The cash was supposedly for Panganiban's month-long official trip to Adelaide, Australia, from June 9 to July 9, 2006 on an invitation from the mayor of Onkaparinga, Australia.

Panganiban, however, did not push through with the trip, prompting the COA to issue a demand letter on the defendant to return the amount.

In a decision promulgated November 18, the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division sentenced Panganiban to 10 to 18 years in jail and fined him P463,931.78 equivalent to the balance of his cash advance that was not paid up at once.

The erstwhile mayor was also banned from running for any public office.
 
Presiding Justice Amparo M. Cabotaje-Tang penned the 25-page ruling with Associate Justices Roland B. Jurado and Alexander G. Gesmundo concurring.
 
The anti-graft court said the defendant committed malversation of public funds as even his claim of good faith cannot absolve him from penalty under the law.
 
“(H)e had absolutely no legal authority to still hold on to the money. In fact, he should have returned the same money immediately. This would have been an immutable demonstration of good faith on his part,” it said.
 
“While the accused was eventually able to return the amount of P500,000, the same was done in tranches and the same… was fully returned only in December 2007, or after his term of office as mayor had long expired," it added.
 
The court held that having returned the money served as a mitigating circumstance for the accused, which entitles him only to a reduced sentence under the Revised Penal Code. — KBK, GMA News