Sandiganbayan finds ex-NHA exec guilty of graft

The Sandiganbayan has found a former executive of the National Housing Authority (NHA) guilty of graft for pocketing funds and allowing the payment of illegal commissions in the purchase of a plot of commercial land some 21 years ago.

In a decision promulgated last Oct. 9, the third division of the anti-graft court sentenced Jesse Kayanan, former manager of NHA Commercial and Industrial Estate Department (CIED), to a jail term of six to 10 years.

The Sandiganbayan also directed Kayanan to return the P358,200 he pocketed in the purchase of a 6,894 square-meter commercial lot located along C-3 Road in Caloocan City on Dec. 10, 1987.

Kayanan’s co-accused, former CIED chief Fernando Antonio, was cleared in October 2002 due to insufficient evidence, while private defendant Cristeta Polintan was acquitted on May 8, 2004.

Records show that Kayanan had endorsed Polintan’s application to broker a purchase of the commercial land.

The court noted that the purchaser of the lot, businesswoman Blandie Ongpauco Chiu, had already submitted her application more than a month earlier on Oct. 29, 1987 but Kayanan did not even mention the need to have a broker.

It was found that Chiu even personally paid the 30 percent deposit amounting to P2.62 million and signed the 10-year purchase contract worth P8.72 million with 18 percent interest per year.

Still, Polintan was paid P388,200 as broker’s commission on Dec. 17, 1987 upon Kayanan’s endorsement. The court said such payment was illegal.

The next day, Kayanan also purchased a Philippine National Bank manager’s check for P358,200, which prosecutors traced to Kayanan’s personal account at the Asian Savings Bank, leading to his conviction for graft.