The Sandiganbayan has denied the plea of former Quezon City mayor Herbert Bautista and his cohort, ex-administrator Aldrin Cuña, to dismiss their P32.1-million graft case in connection with the alleged anomalies in the procurement of a digital permit management system in 2019.

Bautista and Cuña filed separate motions for reconsideration in an attempt to convince the court to acquit them of the crime charged, citing deficiencies in the evidence submitted by the prosecution, including, among others, the existence of a conspiracy to defraud the government.

The anti-graft court in January found them guilty of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019) for awarding full payment to Geodata Solutions Inc. for an online occupational permitting and tracking system (OOPTS) to the tune of P32,107,912.50, despite the system being non-operational and glitch-ridden.

Court records showed that Bautista and Cuña rushed the release of the payment to Geodata two days before their term ended in June 2019, though the delivery was yet to be made — in violation of the Government Auditing Code of the Philippines.

Bautista served as Quezon City mayor for three consecutive terms from 2010 to 2019 and was succeeded by incumbent Mayor Joy Belmonte.

Investigation revealed that the local government unit could not publicly launch the OOPTS until two years later, in 2022, when the system finally functioned after they hired another IT contractor to rebuild the application.

In his defense, Bautista contended that he should not be held accountable because at the time the prosecution found that the OOPTS was inoperable — from July 2019 to 2021 — it was already beyond his term of office.

He also claimed he had no knowledge of any irregularity in the delivery, testing, and acceptance of the OOPTS.

The actor-turned-politician further argued that the issue could have been resolved if only the new administration of Quezon City had filed claims for warranties outlined under the supply and delivery agreement.

For his part, Cuña, the “final signatory” for the transaction that resulted in the release of the check to Geodata, argued that his only role was to sign the procurement documents, which he claimed were under his authority.

In denying the petitions, the Sandiganbayan pointed out that no matter how much they cavil that they were no longer in office at the time Geodata received the payment or that glitches and errors arose, the crux of the issue precisely centered on their official acts while they were in public office.

“There was no cogent reason for the accused to rush the approval of payment in mere days when they knew, without a shadow of doubt, that there were missing deliverables, especially the software application,” the court said. “That they still authorized said payment only goes to show their manifest partiality to make payment to Geodata before their term of office ended on 30 June 2019.”

Moreover, the Sandiganbayan contended that Bautista and Cuña deliberately disregarded “red flags” in the deliveries, including the absence of a crucial component — the software application — which is required to have the OOPTS function.

“These precisely were the red flags that should have stopped the accused, had they acted in good faith, from jumping the gun and authorizing payment to the supplier on 28 June 2019,” the court said.

The Sandiganbayan also rejected Bautista’s attempt to blame the new LGU for not providing the digital infrastructure needed to launch the OOPTS within the six-month period.

“It stands to reason that all the more that the accused should have withheld payment, or passed the torch to the succeeding administration… Instead, the accused rushed the authorization of payment to the supplier in the time frame of less than one week,” the court said.

Thus, the Sandiganbayan upheld its previous decision, sentencing them to up to 10 years in prison and ordering them to pay the civil liability or the fine of P32,107,912.50 — equivalent to the amount embezzled.

Aside from this case, Bautista and Cuña are also facing another graft case before the Sandiganbayan over the irregularities in the payment of P25.342 million to Cygnet Energy Power Asia Inc. for the installation of a solar power system and waterproofing works at one of Quezon City's buildings, also in 2019.