RATHER than face prosecution for a graft charge which is punishable by six-year imprisonment, Pangasinan provincial assessor Nestor Quiambao has opted to plead guilty to a lesser crime of Omission of Property from Assessment or Tax Rolls by Officers before the Sandiganbayan.
The anti-graft court’s Third Division resolution issued October 30, 2024 approved the Plea Bargaining Agreement between the accused and the prosecution dated August 21, 2024.
Quiambao was ordered to show up in court on December 6, 2024 at 8:30 a.m. to be re-arraigned so he can withdraw his Not Guilty plea on the graft case.
The lesser offense that the defendant offered to plead guilty to is punishable under the Local Government Code (RA 7160) by up to six months imprisonment or a fine of up to five thousand pesos or both, at the court’s discretion.
Based on the information filed in 2022, Quiambao was accused of taking advantage of his position as the provincial assessor of Pangasinan to give unwarranted privilege or advantage to a certain Melita Montemayor-Belecina by approving Tax Declaration No. 25369 in her favor even if the applicant’s documents were incomplete.
Prosecutors said the documents submitted by Belecina were insufficient for a proper appraisal of the property.
Instead of approving the tax declaration, they said the provincial assessor should have conducted a proper investigation to “determine the veracity of the application,” noting that there were “glaring inconsistencies in the entries and supporting documents supplied.”
Before the scheduled pre-trial conference on March 15, 2024, Quiambao asked the court to suspend the proceedings as he manifested his intention to seek a plea bargaining deal with the prosecution.
“Having carefully examined the proposed Plea-Bargaining Agreement, the Court found nothing objectionable to it. The consent of the offended parties and the prosecutor, upon the authority of the Ombudsman, has been duly obtained,” the court noted.
In 2018, Quiambao was also charged by the Office of the Ombudsman with a similar offense pertaining to the alleged anomalous cancellation of a residential land’s tax declaration in the names of spouses Rodolfo and Veronica Javier of Bugallon, Pangasinan without due notice, a procedural requirement under Section 223 of R.A. 7160 and the 2006 Manual on Real Property Appraisal and Assessment Operation.
The prosecution said the property was reclassified from residential to an unirrigated rice land but after the title was transferred to a new owner, it was reverted to residential.
Because of this, the property’s market value soared from P32,300 to P605,700 to the benefit of the new owner.
There is no record that the older case has been resolved by the Sandiganbayan.
