THE Sandiganbayan has approved admission of majority of documentary exhibits offered by the prosecution in charges of graft and violation of RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act against former Sta. Barbara, Iloilo mayor Isabelo Maquino and his six co-accused in connection with alleged rigging of the bidding process for infrastructure contracts in 2006.
In a 17-page resolution dated January 9, the Seventh Division admitted a fact-finding investigation report, an affidavit of the graft investigation officer of the Office of the Ombudsman, copies of bidding documents pertaining to five public works projects subject of the pending cases, and copies of articles of incorporation and by-laws of winning contractors.
The defendants had tried to block the documents from being admitted into case records on challenges of being hearsay, materiality, and relevance.
The court clarified, however, that the admitted prosecution exhibits are still to be weighed as to their bearing on the guilt or innocence of the accused.
“We reiterate that this court’s admission of the exhibits in evidence are subject to its appreciation of their probative value and the merit of the purposes for which they were offered in the final resolution of the case,” the Sandiganbayan said.
Named Maquino’s co-accused were Municipal Bids and Awards Committee members Lyndofer Beup, Noel Jaspe, Negenia Araneta, and Sunny Apuang. Included as private defendants were Raymund Tabuga of Topmost Development and Marketing Corp (TMDC) and Felix Gurrea of F. Gurrea Construction Inc. (FGCI).
Based on the indictment issued in 2017, prosecutors accused the municipal officials of acting with manifest partiality and evident bad faith in awarding two public works projects to FGCI and three to TDMC, which are allegedly “sister companies.”
Investigators said either of the contractors ended up as “sole bidders” after the other firms which joined the process eventually withdrew their bids.
They identified the subject projects as the concreting of the Libertad and Arroyo streets, concreting of Sodusta Street, and construction of a Fish Section Building all to TDMC; and the asphalt overlaying of Castilla Street and asphalting of the section of Arroyo Street in front of the public market to FGCI.
However, the Sandiganbayan barred admission of nine documents offered by prosecutors as part of their evidence for being “certified copies of mere machine copies.”
Among documents denied by the court were invitations to apply for eligibility to bid, abstracts of bids, and notices of award of the five projects.
“Said documents do not satisfy the requirements for admissibility of a non-original document,” the Sandiganbayan declared.
