FORMER Makati City supply officer Conrado Pamintuan and administrative officer Jaime delos Reyes have failed to win a reversal of the Jan. 22, 2024 decision of the Sandiganbayan that convicted them on a graft charge for the alleged anomalous procurement of hospital equipment totaling P9.9 million in 2000 and 2001.
In an eight-page resolution issued Feb. 26, 2024, the anti-graft court’s Fourth Division affirmed its pronouncement that the defendants, both members of the city government’s Committee on Canvass for the said transaction, were guilty of giving preference to supplier Apollo Medical Equipment and Supplies (AMES) which was awarded the contract without going through a public bidding.
Pamintuan and Delos Reyes were sentenced to jail terms of six to eight years with the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification from holding any other job in government.
On the other hand, the court acquitted former mayor Elenita Binay, city treasurer Luz Yamane-Garcia, City General Services Department head Ernesto Aspillaga, Ospital ng Makati gynecology head Mabel Asunio, and OsMak property inspector Lilia Nonato.
Government prosecutors said AMES was not even registered with the Food and Drug Administration as a medical device and supplies distributor while its license to operate was found to have expired.
The court held that only members of the canvass committee had prior knowledge of the existence of irregularities but still recommended the supplier to the Committee on Awards.
In their motion for reconsideration, the convicted city officials said there was insufficient basis for their conviction since they relied on notarized and government-issued permits that, on their faces, had nothing to arouse suspicion.
Likewise, they argued that the function of the canvas committee was recommendatory as it was the Committee on Awards, composed of their acquitted co-defendants, that had the final authority to approve the proffered bid.
They said that since the recommendations could be accepted or rejected, it was unfair to hold them as the only ones liable.
Pamintuan and Delos Reyes said they were made “scapegoats to have someone answer for the perceived crime, where the decision-makers were actually acquitted.”
But the Sandiganbayan said the issues and arguments raised have been passed upon and resolved in the assailed decision.
“The evidence on record plainly shows that the actuations of accused Pamintuan and Delos Reyes constituted gross inexcusable negligence as they failed to exercise even the slightest care in the discharge of their duties,” the court said.
Addressing the defendants’ claim of being singled out to take the fall, the Fourth Division noted that it was the canvass committee which was tasked to “canvass, review, verify and ascertain not only the suppliers or their legal existence, but also the authenticity and validity of the documents submitted.”
A simple verification of the signature on the license to operate would have shown that the signatory, Quintin Kintanar, could not have validly done so because he had retired much earlier.
It said the same burden was not expected of the awards committee because it was not supposed to repeat the same process of vetting and verifying.
“In view of the above, the Court finds to cogent reason to warrant any modification or reversal of the assailed decision,” the Sandiganbayan said.
Associate Justice Lorifel Lacap Pahiman penned the ruling with Associate Justices Michael Frederick L. Musngi and Bayani H. Jacinto concurring.
