Judge gets nine years for P10,000 bribe

For demanding P10,000 in exchange for the release of two impounded buses, the executive judge of the Valenzulea Regional Trial Court Branch 75 was sentenced to nine years and four months in prison and pay a P30,000 fine.

In its decision last Tuesday, the Sandiganbayan’s third division said Judge Jaime Bautista was found guilty of direct bribery.

In its 35-page decision penned by Associate Justice Godofredo Legaspi, division chairman, with concurrence of the two other members of the bench, Associate Justices Efren dela Cruz and Norberto Geraldez, the anti-graft court held that the prosecution’s evidence had established Bautista’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

The case stemmed from a complaint filed by the Office of the Ombudsman against Bautista based on a complaint by Ranel Paruli, liaison officer of Sierra Madre Transportation Co. Inc.

In his complaint, Paruli accused Bautista of demanding P10,000 in exchange for the release of the transport firm’s two buses that were impounded.

Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested Bautista in his chambers after an entrapment operation on March 20, 2001. Upon his arrest, Bautista denied receiving any money and claimed that his name was only used by others to dupe Paruli.

But chemists of the NBI laboratory showed that his palms, trouser pockets and wallet tested positive for fluorescent powder used to mark P500 bills that Paruli delivered to the judge’s office in an envelope. The powder is used to prove that money changed hands.

The P5,000 cash, Paruli testified, was the second installment of the bribe money following an earlier P5,000 that he had delivered to Bautista’s house in Angono, Rizal.

"The thrust of accused Bautista’s defense is denial. Regrettably, denial, like alibi, is an inherently puerile defense if unsubstantiated by clear and convincing evidence. Thus, accused Bautista cannot feign innocence since all the indicia point to his guilt and malicious intent," the Sandiganbayan ruled.