Ex-village executive gets 40 years for malversation

MANILA, Philippines - A former village official in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for falsifiying commercial documents and malversation.

Charlene Cabusas, former treasurer of Barangay Rizal, was sentenced separately for 30 counts of malversation charges filed against her.

If Cabusas serves time for each of the charges, she will be imprisoned for 894 years.

The Office of the Ombudsman said Cabusas would serve the prison terms concurrently, which means that the maximum prison time stands at 40 years.

The San Carlos Regional Trial Court Branch 57 sentenced Cabusas to life imprisonment for each of the first 15 cases and a maximum of 20 years for 14 other charges.

For the last case, the accused was sentenced from eight to 14 years in prison.

The ombudsman said Cabusas falsified 30 checks from March 2008 to March 2009.

Results of an investigation conducted by the Commission on Audit showed the amounts stated in the checks were more than the amounts contained in the corresponding disbursement vouchers.

State auditors said 16 of the checks had altered names of payees and amounts, while the 14 others had falsified amounts, which resulted in a cash shortage of P780,000.   

Cabusas reportedly admitted the cash shortage to the COA auditors and failed to return the amount.

Aside from imprisonment, the court ordered Cabusas to pay P780,000 or equivalent to the amount malversed and P780,000 more in civil liability to Barangay Rizal.