MANILA, Philippines - Five years after the Sandiganbayan sentenced him to 10 years in jail for graft and corruption, a former operations manager of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) was cleared of any culpability by the Supreme Court (SC).
In a decision promulgated last April 24 and penned by Associate Justice Dante Tinga, the SC’s Second Division reversed the Sandiganbayan ruling convicting engineer Ernesto Guiduquio.
Guiduquio was accused of “unlawfully and feloniously” splitting “pakyaw” contractors and job orders into 12 schedules or phases, making it appear that the cost of each project did not exceed P100,000, and awarding all projects to just one contractor.
The 12 schedules of the construction projects, according to the complaint, were executed by Guiduquio and another Napocor official despite the fact that this was outside their scope, and that they awarded the projects to a contractor without the benefit of any public bidding.
The Sandiganbayan ruled that Guiduquio committed graft when he awarded the “pakyaw” contracts without public bidding and paid for them despite alleged deficiencies in the construction.
Contrary to the Sandiganbayan findings, the SC said the bidding was “reasonably dispensed with due to the urgency of the matter.”
The SC noted that in the early 1990s, the country suffered from a crippling power crisis with power outages lasting up to 12 hours daily. At that time, power generation was badly needed.
To address the problem, Napocor sought to attract investors in power plant operations by providing them with incentives, one of which was Napocor’s assuming payment for their taxes.
For the same purpose, Napocor also reconditioned existing power plants and put up new power plants on small islands.
The case against Guiduquio stemmed from the construction of power plants on Olango Island in Lapu-Lapu City and Guintarcan and Doong on Bantayan Island.
The SC also dismissed that Quiduquio paid the workers even before the projects were completed, saying he was able to prove that they still continued to work and completed the projects even after being paid.
The SC said it found Quiduquio “in causing the payment, was moved by sympathy for the plight of the workers, even while imposing safeguard measures for the government which belies claim of partiality.”