A former official of the Cagayan State University (CSU) faces up to 20 years in jail after the Sandiganbayan affirmed her conviction on two counts of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Accused Fe Aresta, former chief administrative officer and head of the CSU bids and awards committee (BAC), was found guilty of taking an unlawful interest in the lease contract on the university’s dormitories which ended up being awarded to her dummy, co-accused CSU adminis-trative aide Gerardo Zingapan, who was convicted of one count of graft.
In its 48-page decision, the Sandiganbayan third division sustained the findings of the Regional Trial Court of Tuguegarao City, Cagayan Branch 2 as well as the judgment sentencing the de-fendants to six to ten years imprisonment for each count of the criminal offense with perpetual disqualification from holding any public office and loss of all retirement benefits.
Case records showed Aresta, as chairperson of the CSU BAC, took charge of the bidding for the operation of the Dorms Kapayapaan, Kalayaan, and Kaularan at the CSU-Carig Campus in Tuguegarao City in 2009.
Three individuals participated in the bidding process: Perpetua Palma, who offered P80,000 in monthly rental payments, Zingapan, who submitted a bid of P70,100, and Lyn Tumaliuan with a P70,000 per month bid.
While Palma’s bid was the highest, she was disqualified during post-qualification based on al-leged doubts regarding her capability to pay the monthly rent.
The contract was awarded to Zingapan on March 4, 2009 based on his submission of the second-highest bid.
However, he was only able to pay the monthly rent for five months before asking the University president to reduce the monthly rent.
Despite the reduced monthly rate, Zingapan still failed to pay up, prompting the campus execu-tive officer to send demand payments on arrears as well as the unpaid electricity bill.
Finally, on May 27, 2010 the CSU sent a Notice of Termination of Contract to Zingapan, followed by a Notice of Final Demand.
In reply, Zingaan sent a notarized Sworn Statement dated September 14, 2010 disclosing that he was only an agent of Aresta and that the latter was the real lessee of the campus dormitories.
An investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman and the Commission on Audit resulted in in-dictments against Aresta and Zingapan for corruption and the filing of charges in court on Janu-ary 16, 2016.
“Based on the foregoing, the Court finds that the prosecution was able to prove beyond a rea-sonable doubt that accused-appellant Zingapan conspired with accused-appellant Aresta in or-der to violate Section 3(h) of R.A. No. 3019, as amended,” the Sandiganbayan said.
