New Comelec commissioner faces estafa charge

MANILA, Philippines -  Newly appointed Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Augusto Lagman is facing charges of estafa and violation of the Corporation Code at the Makati City Regional Trial Court.

Lagman is facing a case for violation of the Corporation Code before Branch 61 of the Makati City Regional Trial Court (RTC). The case was filed by Nora Bitong and is set for hearing on Aug. 15 before Judge Barbara Aleli Hernandez-Briones.

Lagman is also facing an estafa case, also filed by Bitong, before Branch 142 of the Makati RTC before Judge Dina Teves. This case is set for judicial dispute resolution on May 18.

The estafa case was previously dismissed by the Makati Prosecutor’s Office but was revived by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

On June 17, 2010, then Justice Undersecretary Linda Malenab-Hornilla signed a resolution that ordered the filing of estafa against Lagman for the alleged unauthorized sale of a technology firm he partly owned to the Philippine Investment Management Inc. (Phinma) in 2007.

The DOJ ordered the filing of the estafa case based on the complaint of Bitong who, the DOJ said, was majority owner of Systems Standard Inc. (SSI) that owned Vinta Systems.

In ordering the filing of the case, Hornilla reversed a previous resolution of the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office that cleared Lagman of the estafa complaint, citing lack of probable cause.

According to the DOJ, there is probable cause to file the case in court after it was established that Lagman misled the board of directors of SSI when he “falsely represented that there were no substantial developments” in the planned infusion of capital amounting to $1 million to Vinta Systems by a potential US-based investor, Aureos Capital. – With Sheila Crisostomo