Sandiganbayan convicts former San Pablo treasurer over bounced check repayment

The Sandiganbayan convicted a former treasurer of San Pablo City in Laguna, who borrowed P277,340 from the city government’s daily market and other local revenue collections and paid it via check that bounced due to insufficient funds.

The prosecution and the legal counsel of Angelita Belen, who was accused of misappropriating the subject amount, had earlier entered into a plea bargain agreement, allowing her to plead guilty to a lesser offense instead of facing a trial.

The Sandiganbayan approved the bargain deal in February, and as a result, Belen pleaded guilty to failure of accountable officer to render accounts under Article 218 of the Revised Penal Code instead of three counts of malversation of public funds.

The Ombudsman in 2010 filed malversation charges against Belen following a complaint from Commission on Audit-Region IV Director Eden Rafanan, accusing Belen of borrowing P277,340 from the collections of the Treasury Department.

Belen allegedly promised to pay it before the close of business hours within the same day. However, instead of returning the amount in cash, she issued checks to repay the amount, but they bounced due to lack of funds.

Court records showed that it took two months after Belen fully paid the amount in cash.

The Ombudsman, however, still ordered the filing of charges against her, asserting that returning the money did not exculpate her from criminal liability and that there was “bad faith and an intention on her part to defraud the government.”

The Sandiganbayan concurred with the Ombudsman.

"Her act of taking the city's revenue collections and returning it only after two months from such taking means that she failed to timely render proper accounting of the city's daily cash collections. Such act may constitute the crime of failure of accountable officer to render accounts,” the decision dated 21 March reads.

Instead of perpetual disqualification and a fine equal to the amount of the funds malversed, the penalties imposed for malversation of public funds, the court ordered Belen to pay a fine of only P18,000, equivalent to three cases of violation of Article 218 of the Rev. Pen. Code, which has a maximum penalty of P6,000.