Death spares Limay mayor from 20-year graft sentence

Owing to his death, the Sandiganbayan has dismissed the graft charges against Limay, Bataan Municipal Mayor Nelson David, who was accused of taking advantage of his position to purchase agricultural land from his sons at a staggering P10.2 million, despite the property being originally acquired for nearly P400,000.

The anti-graft court convicted David of two counts of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act 3019) on December 2 of last year, only four days after he died of a heart attack.

Under the law, a criminal case must be automatically dismissed if the accused dies before arraignment.

The promulgation — which resulted in the late mayor’s conviction — proceeded, however, despite his passing, as David’s legal counsel failed to inform the court of his death until the day of the arraignment.

The case was not immediately recalled, pending verification of the prosecution of David’s death certificate from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

According to the Sandiganbayan, David's judgment had not reached its finality yet, as he still had a pending petition challenging the evidence presented by the prosecution.

However, pursuant to Article 89 of the Revised Penal Code, which mandates that criminal liability be totally extinguished in the event of the accused’s death, the court dismissed the case with respect to David.

“After a review of the records of the case and the arguments raised by the parties, the court dismisses the case against David in view of his death,” the resolution promulgated on 28 February reads. 

David was accused of acting with evident bad faith when the municipality acquired, in October 2002, the agricultural property of his sons — Richie David (incumbent mayor) and Cristian Ryan David — for P10,180,380 or P140 per square meter, which was “grossly and manifestly disadvantageous to the government,” since it was only valued at P338,151 or P3 per square meter.

Graft investigators said the amount was based on residential land, not pasture land as indicated in its tax declaration, making the appraisal overvalued.

“The 4,657% increase in price in a span of two short years is gross as it is shocking. The fact that David was set in buying his sons’ property was clearly ‘evident to the senses’ or ‘obvious’,” the ruling handed down on 2 December reads.

The erstwhile mayor earlier denied that he signed the deed of sale between the municipality and his sons. However, the court asserted that, being the only person authorized by the Sangguniang Bayan to negotiate and purchase the property, the payment and transfer of the property to the municipality could not have been possible without his knowledge.

David’s co-accused, former municipal assessor Jocelyn Linao, petitioned the Sandiganbayan to drop the case against her, denying conspiracy with the late mayor.

In rejecting her motion, the court stated that it was Linao who prepared and submitted to David the appraisal report containing the 4,567% price increase of the property.

“Without said appraisal, the plan of David to purchase his sons' property at a high price would not have been accomplished,” the court ruled. 
Both David and Linao were sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and perpetual disqualification from holding public office for two counts of graft. But with David’s passing, only Linao will be subjected to the penalties.