Presiding Judge Rowena Nieves Tan of Branch 118 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Pasay City convicted Leilani Pagdanganan, Senior Accountant B of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) of violation of Section 3(h) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act No. 3019), and sentenced her to nine years and one day to 12 years of imprisonment, with perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
Pagdanganan was found to have received a total of P3,492,400.00 from Equine Power Trading Company (EPTC), a contractor with several projects with the MIAA.
Ombudsman prosecutors presented withdrawal slips signed by Pagdanganan to prove that she received P996,400.00 on 28 December 2006 and P400,000.00 on 04 April 2007, withdrawn from the savings account of EPTC maintained at the Parañaque Branch of Land Bank of the Philippines. The prosecution also presented a voucher from EPTC dated 22 January 2007 for the amount of P2,096,000.00 signed by her as recipient.
“The court finds the circumstantial evidence as forming an unbroken chain leading to one fair and reasonable conclusion that accused Pagdanganan, to the exclusion of all others, is guilty of soliciting and accepting moneys from EPTC, with whom the office, the MIAA, had existing projects to fund and which accused Pagdanganan, as a public employee, is prohibited by law from having any financial interest in,” explained the RTC Decision.
The court added that Pagdanganan “never refuted the fact that she received moneys from Equine with whom her office, the MIAA, had several on-going projects being financed by it. Neither did she present any evidence to show that she received the same for a lawful purpose.”
Section 3(h) of RA 3019 prohibits a public officer from directly or indirectly having financial or pecuniary interest in any business, contract or transaction in connection with which he intervenes or takes part in an official capacity, or in which he is prohibited by the Constitution or by any law from having any interest. ###