‘Euro’ police generals cleared

After eleven years of having to leave the uniformed service under the clouds of infamy, nine former generals of the Philippine National Police (PNP) were finally cleared of the graft and technical malversation charges filed against them. This was by virtue of the 55-page resolution promulgated by the Sandiganbayan last October 18. The acquittal verdict of the anti-graft court was released only last Friday.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed the case in 2014 involving six counts of graft and three counts of illegal use of public funds, also referred as technical malversation under Article 220 of the Revised Penal Code.

Aside from this case, the Ombudsman also lost the 22nd forfeiture case against the Marcoses and their cronies – 19 cases are still pending – that was released also last Friday.

Pejoratively called as the “euro generals,” the graft case was in connection with their alleged illegal disbursement of P10 million of PNP intelligence funds used for the official travel of the nine accused to Russia in 2008.

The nine are, namely: retired senior police officials Eliseo dela Paz, then chief for comptrollership of the PNP; Emmanuel Carta, then deputy chief for operations; Ismael Rafanan, then chief of the directorial staff; Romeo Ricardo, then director for plans; German Doria, then director for human resources and doctrine development; Orlando Pestaño then director for finance service; Samuel Rodriguez, then special disbursing officer of the finance service; Tomas Rentoy III then director of the budget division of the PNP directorate for comptrollership; and Jaime Caringal, then Region IX police director.

They were charged with alleged illegal disbursement of P10 million of the PNP’s confidential and intelligence fund (CIF) for 2008 for the official travel to attend the 77th International Police (Interpol) general assembly in St. Petersburg, Russia from October 7 to 10, 2008.

The alleged irregularity was discovered when Dela Paz and his wife Maria Fe were prevented by Russian authorities from leaving the Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow. They were caught carrying 105,000 euros (or about P6.9 million) in cash that was way above the limit that can be carried out of the country. Hence, they earned the “euro” generals tag in the subsequent Senate and the congressional investigations that were undertaken against them.

It led to a series of public hearing at the Senate that investigated this “in aid of legislation.” It was jointly conducted by the Senate committee on foreign relations – then chaired by the late Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago – as the “lead” investigating body, and the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee as the secondary committee.

Then Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary (DILG) Ronaldo Puno, who sits as ex officio chairman of the National Police Commission (Napolcom), ordered the withholding of the retirement benefits of De la Paz and the other retiring “euro generals” until they are cleared on the Moscow scandal. Puno, who presented the initial findings of an ad hoc committee that looked into this incident, revealed their internal investigation found a violation of rules when the accused police officials took their allowances from the PNP intelligence fund.

The findings and recommendations of both the DILG and the Senate investigations were turned over to the Ombudsman for proper disposition. Doing their own field investigations, the Ombudsman found enough evidence and probable cause to elevate the charges at the Sandiganbayan.

Through their lawyers, the nine accused asked for the outright dismissal of the charges against them without presenting their defense but based solely on the weakness of evidence of the prosecution. The Sandiganbayan second division granted the respective demurrer to evidence filed by the nine accused police officers. In handing down the acquittal verdict, the Second Division cited: “In all criminal cases, the prosecution bears the burden to establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt. In discharging this burden, it is the prosecution’s duty to prove each and every element of the offenses charged in order to warrant a finding of guilt for the same. This, the prosecution failed to do.”

With their acquittal, the Second Division has also ordered the lifting of the hold departure order it earlier issued against them. The anti-graft court also directed the release of the bail bonds they previously paid for their provisional liberty while undergoing trial.

It was not mentioned whether the nine former police generals would now be entitled to receive their retirement benefits that they were supposed to receive from the PNP. Except for Dela Paz who still has another graft case still pending, his other co-accused would henceforth be entitled to it now that they are acquitted.

It was not a unanimous ruling though of the second division of the Sandiganbayan on the case of the “euro” generals.

Thus, the second division invoked their internal rules allowing two members from the other divisions of the anti-graft court to sit in order to come up with a majority decision. There are seven divisions at the Sandiganbayan. Each division is composed of three justices.

The ruling was penned by Sandiganbayan associate justice Michael Frederick Musngi and concurred in by associate justices Lorifel Pahimna and Georgina Hidalgo.

The dissenting votes were cast by associate justices Oscar Herrera Jr. and Sara Jane Fernandez.

Herrera chairs the second division while Fernandez is the chairperson of the sixth Division. On the other hand, Musngi is a senior member of the second division while Pahimna and Hidalgo are junior members of the second and seventh division, respectively. So Fernandez and Hidalgo were called in to sit when the second division failed to reach a unanimous ruling.

With the declared policy of Ombudsman Samuel Martires that acquittal verdicts would not be appealed, the so-called “euro generals“ are now on the clear. Will the Senate investigations into the so-called “ninja cops” suffer the same fate? Only time will tell.