DOLE sheriff gets 7 years for extortion
State prosecutors from the Office of the Ombudsman were able to sufficiently prove that the sheriff demanded and received P15,000 from the employees of Manila Times Publishing Corporation in exchange for not serving a second writ of execution in a labor case pending before the DOLE-NCR. File photo
MANILA, Philippines — A sheriff of the Department of Labor and Employment-National Capital Region was sentenced to up to seven years of imprisonment for extorting P15,000 from the employees of the Manila Times Publishing Corporation (MTPC).
In a decision penned by Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 52 Presiding Judge Ana Marie Mas, DOLE-NCR sheriff Ronaldo Espinosa was found guilty of direct bribery under the Revised Penal Code.
He was sentenced to a minimum of three years to a maximum of seven years of imprisonment and was ordered to pay a fine of P45,000. The court also ordered his temporary disqualification from government service.
The court said state prosecutors from the Office of the Ombudsman were able to sufficiently prove that Espinosa demanded and received P15,000 from the employees of MTPC in exchange for not serving a second writ of execution in a labor case pending before the DOLE-NCR.
The prosecution presented MTPC employees who testified that Espinosa initially demanded P20,000 from them, and told them that if they will give the said amount, “he will not implement the subject alias writ, and will instead place the MTPC’s labor case to the archive and will tear the alias writ in from of them.”
During her testimony, MTPC employee Rowena Franco said that after a negotiation, Espinosa agreed to lower the amount to P15,000.
Franco said that after Espinosa left their office, she and the after MTPC employees sought the assistance of the Anti-Graft Division of the National Bureau of Investigation.
Operatives from the NBI testified in court that they organized an entrapment operation against Espinosa on Oct. 30, 2008, in which, the DOLE-NCR sheriff was caught red-handed in his office at the DOLE-NCR receiving the marked money.
“Accused failed to rebut the affirmative and positive testimonies of the prosecution witnesses which the court finds to be credible, categorical, straightforward, spontaneous and consistent, coupled with their lack of ill-motive to falsely testify against him, vis-à-vis the defense of denial proffered by the latter,” the court's decision read.
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