The Sandiganbayan Second Division has denied the request for bail of accused Mary Ann Tupa Maslog who was supposed to have been dead for more than five years.
Presiding Justice Geraldine Faith Econg and Associate Justices Edgardo M. Caldona and Arthur O. Malabaguio held that the history of the accused in evading arrest, faking her death, and assuming false identities are more than enough to dissuade the court from granting her request.
“While the right to bail is constitutionally guaranteed, it is not absolute. Granting bail under these circumstances would erode public confidence in the judicial system,” the anti-graft court declared.
Maslog was named private defendant in a graft case filed in 2008 over an anomalous P24 million textbook procurement deal involving officials of the former Department of Education, Culture, and Sports (DECS now DepEd) Regional Office 8.
But on November 27, 2019, her counsel informed the court that she had passed away on November 18, 2019. The court ordered the submission of a Dearth Certificate from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
On October 16, 2020, the court convicted Maslog’s co-defendants former DECS Region 8 chief accountant Emilia Aranas and budget and finance officer Ernesto Guiang of one count of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019) and sentenced each of them to six to ten years of imprisonment with perpetual disqualification from holding another government post.
They were found guilty of unlawfully approving the payment of P24 million to supplier Esteem Enterprises, represented by Maslog, for the delivery of textbooks and supplementary printed materials based on falsified documents.
Prosecutors said there was no valid procurement contract since the supposed sub-allotment release orders (SAROs) for P10 million and P14 million did not come from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and were later established to have been fabricated.
Last September 25, 2024 the National Bureau of Investigation Fraud and Financial Crimes Division (NBI-FFCD) arrested one Dr. Jesica Francisco in Quezon City on a complaint for fraud. The suspect turned out to be Maslog under a different name.
The NBI said, sometime in 2021, she scammed two investors to fork over P5 million and P3 million in cash which she said would be used to start a water supply system in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). To cover her con game, Maslog issued bank checks to her victims which later turned out to be fake.
Examination of the biometric printouts of Dr. Francisco’s right index finger led investigators to the records of wanted person Mary Ann Evanz Basa Tupa Smith, Mary Ann Evans Smith, Mary Ann Tupa Maslog-Smith, Mary Ann Evanz Basa Tupa, and Mary Ann Tupa Maslog.
It was the last name that raised red flags in connection with a 16-year-old corruption case at the Sandiganbayan.
The court said Maslog convinced her own child to report her as dead to mislead authorities and enable the accused to live under various assumed identities.
“The accused-movant’s deliberate and repeated violations of her bail obligations, combined with her pattern of evasion, disqualify her from availing of the privilege of bail. Her actions necessitate the continued enforcement of the Bench Warrant to ensure her presence during trial,” the Sandiganbayan said.
