A CLAIM of unfamiliarity with a new law failed to save a former provincial accountant of Oriental Mindoro after the Sandiganbayan denied her appeal for the reversal of her conviction on two counts of graft charges.
In a 13-page resolution, the Sandiganbayan Sixth Division reminded Ma. Cynthia Puyat that “ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance therewith” as it swept aside her contention that her lack of understanding of RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act got her in trouble even if she acted in good faith.
Puyat was convicted last March 15, 2021 of two charges of violation of RA 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in connection with the provincial government’s procurement of fertilizer from private suppliers without holding the required public bidding, together with former treasurer Paz Fortunato and provincial agriculturist Rodolfo Valdez.
They were sentenced to six to eight years imprisonment for each count of graft.
Based on the charges filed in 2017, the defendants caused undue injury to the provincial government when they approved the purchase of P1 million worth of bio-organic fertilizer from Exquisite Focus Inc., P1 million liquid fertilizer from Chempro Sales, and P1.25 million organic fertilizers from SAKA Agriventures Inc. without conducting the required public bidding.
The Sandiganbayan said the resort to direct contracting was unjustified since none of the three suppliers can be considered exclusive distributors of fertilizers or even of the type of fertilizer purchased by the provincial government.
It said the release of payment gave unwarranted benefit to the suppliers since all the transactions were irregular.
Even if RA 9184 was new, having been in effect for a little over a year by the time the procurement contracts were approved in 2004, the Sandiganbayan pointed out that the requirement for competitive public bidding was already mandatory under RA 7160 or the Local Government Code 0f 1991 — a much older law.
Likewise, Puyat’s challenge to the admissibility of the prosecution’s documentary evidence failed to sway the court as it upheld that the copies of disbursement vouchers are considered secondary evidence, recognized under the Rules of Court.
Audit Team Leader Emmerly Jane Masangkay issued a certification that an inventory of documents submitted by the provincial government of Oriental Mindoro to the Commission on Audit were destroyed by a series of floods in 2005 and subsequent years.
Nonetheless, the existence of the questioned documents supported the issuance of checks as payments for the transactions.
“The fact that funds were disbursed means that there was a corresponding disbursement voucher because in the ordinary course of procedure, before a disbursement can be made, the concerned officers… should make their respective certifications in the said disbursement voucher. The foregoing, alone, may prove accused Puyat’s participation in the subject transactions,” the Sandiganbayan pointed out.
