THE Sandiganbayan has allowed two officers of a cooperative in Sarangani province to plead guilty to a lesser offense rather than face trial for more serious crimes of graft and malversation of public funds for allegedly conspiring with public officials in defrauding the provincial government.
Accused Hadji Moner Mangelen and Umbra Macagcalat, president and treasurer, respectively, of the Kamanga Muslim-Christian Fishermen’s Cooperative in Maasin, Sarangani were convicted by the Sandiganbayan Sixth Division for their failure to render accounts and were sentenced to imprisonment of four moths to one year and one month and fines of P6,000 each.
The Office of the Ombudsman accepted a plea bargain deal with the defendants after they paid in full the P350,000 that was taken out of the Countrywide Development Funds by false representation that the cooperative requested such financial assistance.
Corruption investigators from the Office of the Ombudsman found that there was no request made and the amount did not go to the cooperative.
Based on the separate information for graft and malversation of public funds filed in 2011, also named co-accused were Sarangani treasurer Cesar Cagang, provincial accountant Maria Camanay, executive assistant to the vice governor Amelia Carmela Zoleta.
