Ex-DepEd official gets 27-year jail term

A former Department of Education (DepEd) regional director has been convicted and sentenced to up to 27 years for embezzling P6.2 million of the agency’s funds intended for the payment of the salaries of teachers in 2007.

The Sandiganbayan First Division delivered a verdict on 11 June finding former Zamboanga Peninsula (DepEd Region 9) director Jesus Nieves guilty of one count each of graft and malversation of public funds. He has been ordered to pay a fine of P6,164,423.23, equivalent to the amount found to have been misappropriated.

On top of the penalties, Nieves was also banned from holding public office in the future.

The anti-graft court, meanwhile, acquitted former DepEd Region 9 chief accountant Marilou Tolosa, citing the prosecution’s failure to prove that she was in cahoots with Nieves to execute the crime.

The case pertains to the transfer of P6,164,423.23 from the DepEd Region 9’s payroll account to the bank account of the Belgian Integrated Agrarian Reform Support Program (BIARSP), which had already been closed in August 2007, upon request of Tolosa.

The subject amount, intended for teachers’ hazard pay, was withdrawn by DepEd cashier Virginia Montero, who was also implicated in the case but died before the case was filed in court.

Court records showed that the Nieves approved the transfer of the funds, which as of to date, “remain unremitted, unrestituted, and unaccounted for.”

Graft investigators pinpointed the blame on Nieves, who has control of the funds under the ATM payroll and BIARSP accounts.

“No transfer or disbursement will be made possible without his approval and signature,” the Sandiganbayan said.

“The fact that he affixed his signature on the authorization to transfer the funds and on the check to facilitate the withdrawal of the amount shows that he permitted the taking of the money from the government,” the decision further reads.

In 2017, the Ombudsman also indicted Nieves, his wife Segundina, former education supervisor II, and their stepdaughter Gwendolyn Sola, former data encoder II, of graft raps over their alleged unexplained assets, including a commercial lot in Kamuning, Quezon City, valued at P7.6 million, among others.