THE Sandiganbayan First Division has affirmed the October 6, 2022 decision of the Cebu City Regional Trial Court that convicted an intelligence officer of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on a graft charge for involvement in extorting P60,000 in cash from a resort owner in Panglao Island, Bohol in 2005.
Associate Justices Efren N. de la Cruz, Geraldine Faith A. Econg, and Juliet M. Manalo-San Gaspar denied the appeal filed by Francis Mercado, intelligence officer 3 of the BIR Special Investigation Division, Revenue Region No. 13 for lack of merit, declaring that all the elements of the crime as charged had been sufficiently established.
Based on information filed in 2006 by the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Visayas, Mercado was accused of connivance with BIR Special Investigation Division chief Bonifacio Ybañez and late revenue officer Edgar Palgan in soliciting or demanding and receiving cash amounting to P60,000 from complainant Leonila Montero, owner of the Alona Tropical Beach Resort in Panglao.
Montero said it was Palgan who first got in touch with her in March 2005 through phone calls and text messages and instructed her to submit sales receipts for 2004 and January to March 2005 to BIR Region 7 office in Cebu City.
When she went there with the required documents, she said she was brought by Palgan to the office of Ybañez where Mercado was also present.
A second meeting on May 24, 2005 was also called by Palgan in Ayala Center, Cebu City where she was informed of her tax assessments. This was followed by an official demand from the BIR for her supposed liability of around P200,000.
During a third meeting with Palgan and Mercado in the Metro Center Hotel in Tagbilaran City on July 20, 2005, Montero said the two asked her to pay the amount in exchange for immunity from surveillance assessment.
The following day, Mercado called her and offered to accept half of the amount or P100,000 which she was able to reduce further to just P60,000 after some haggling.
After this, the resort owner said she consulted a friend who was a former chief of police of Panglao, who advised her to work with authorities to set up an entrapment operation.
On August 2, 2005, police collared Ybañez and Palgan after receiving P30,000 in cash from Montero at a restaurant in Ayala Center, Cebu. Mercado was not present during the entrapment, having left earlier for Manila.
Initially, only Ybañez was convicted as Palgan passed away during the pendency of the case but Mercado was later also found guilty in an Amended Decision rendered by the Cebu City RTC on October 6, 2022.
In denying Mercado’s appeal, the anti-graft court noted that Montero gave a consistent and straightforward testimony.
This was further bolstered by the prosecution’s submission of Mercado’s business card where he scribbled the numbers corresponding to his payroll account with the Land Bank of the Philippines.
Montero said she was given the card with instructions from the accused to deposit the P30,000 balance in the said Landbank account.
“The Court affirms the ruling of the court a quo that Mercado conspired with Ybañez and Palgan. It is clear from the evidence that it was Mercado who called Montero and quoted the amount of P100,000. These acts of Montero are more than sufficient to show his participation in the crime charged,” the Sandiganbayan said.
The court also affirmed the sentence imposed against Mercado for imprisonment of six to eight years.
