Church worker found guilty of qualified theft

CEBU, Philippines - A former accountant of the Sacred Heart Parish Church was found guilty of 12 counts of qualified theft for stealing over half million pesos of church funds and was sentenced to suffer the penalty of not more than 40 years imprisonment.

Evelyn Mercader would have suffered a total of 173 years imprisonment for the 12 counts of qualified theft, but Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 7 Judge Simeon Dumdum only imposed upon her the maximum 40 years life expectancy.

Mercader was accused of stealing P557, 650 from the church where she served as bookkeeper and accountant for nearly 20 years. She was in charge of recording the monthly income from the church collection and expenses.

 Her position allows her to have access to the financial records and to the safety vault where the daily collections and other income of the parish were kept. Discrepancies were found in the church's records when she resigned from the parish in 2004.

Based on the minutes of the parish's financial committee meeting, Mercader admitted stealing P800, 000 from the parish but promised to return it. She wrote an acknowledgement stating her promise to pay by installment but when she testified in court, she denied having stole money.

Mercader, whose father is the parish pianist, grew up in the parish compound and was granted a college scholarship. When she earned her degree, she was hired as the parish's bookkeeper, the head of the accounting office and was later promoted to be the parish's accountant.

The parish, which marked its 60th year in 2012, was opened by the Jesuit congregation to serve the Chinese community in Cebu.

Meanwhile, a foreman of a construction company was also charged with qualified theft before the court for stealing construction equipment.

Jaime Costanios Villarta, 30, was accused of stealing a MAKITA sander, two Skil Impact Drill Guns, a Bosh drill gun, two portable Bosh grinders, and two Bosh angle grinders which were issued to him by the company amounting to P21, 570.

Byron Mendoza, owner of the company, said that a contractor reported to him about a missing sander from his construction site.  Mendoza instructed the security agency of the company to conduct an investigation on the missing sander. Mendoza received a text message from the security guard on duty confirming the irregularity of supplies in the construction site. Mendoza did an inventory of his equipment and other materials and found out that he also lost drill guns and grinders.

On top of that, Mendoza also discovered that Villarta took 60 sacks of cement, 100 sacks of fine sand and 28 pieces of round bars all worth P22, 724. Villarta allegedly took these materials out of the site without Mendoza's permission and the incident was recorded on the guard's log book.

Mendoza tried to confront Villarta about the incident but the later left the company without any prior notice and could no longer be located. –(FREEMAN)