Sandiganbayan hands ex-Bacolod mayor 14 years over fake cash slips

The Sandiganbayan has meted a 14-year jail time each to a former mayor and her secretary after they were found guilty on seven counts of malversation of public funds through the falsification of public documents over tampered cash slips attached to disbursement vouchers (DVs) worth a little over P270,000.

In a 114-page decision dated April 29, the Sandiganbayan said former Bacolod City mayor Luzviminda Valdez “is presumed to be the material author of the falsification of the cash slips as the claimant of the reimbursements with the falsified cash slips as supporting documents, and as payee of all nine checks in these cases, all of which she received.”

Likewise, the anti-graft court said the then mayor’s secretary Brendo Elegio “is equally guilty as accused Valdez by requesting the reimbursements using the falsified cash slips.”

“From the foregoing basic facts, it follows that accused Valdez and Elegio, acting in conspiracy, were the ones who falsified or caused the falsification of the various cash slips used as supporting documents,” the Sandiganbayan said. 

The defense evidence, the Sandiganbayan said, failed to overturn the fact of falsification nor the basic facts established that gave rise to the presumption that accused Valdez and Elegio were the ones who falsified or who caused the falsification of the cash slips.

Valdez and Elegio, the anti-graft court said, did not try to establish that the cash slips presented in evidence were not the ones originally attached to the subject disbursement vouchers.

Likewise, Valdez and Elegio failed to provide “a satisfactory explanation why falsified documents found their way to the DVs that they prepared, approved and submitted for reimbursement.”

“Accused Valdez and Elegio failed to overturn through a satisfactory explanation the presumption that they were the forgers of the cash slips. They failed to provide a reasonable explanation inconsistent with their guilt,” the Sandiganbayan said.

Valdez and Elejio were also fined P5,000 each for each count of conviction of malversation of public funds due to falsification of public documents. — BM, GMA Integrated News