MANILA, Philippines - A Negros Occidental court has sentenced a former barangay treasurer to at least 40 years in prison for falsifying 30 checks from 2008 to 2009.
The San Carlos City Regional Trial Court branch 57 in Negros Occidental found Charlene Cabusas, ex-Barangay Rizal treasurer, guilty of 30 counts of malversation through falsification of commercial documents.
Aside from imprisonment, the court also directed Cabusas to pay a total of P1.56 million to Barangay Rizal. She is also barred from entering government service.
During trial, the Ombudsman prosecutors established that from March 2008 to March 2009, Cabusas falsified 30 checks by altering their details.
The Commission on Audit (COA) investigation also showed that the 30 checks issued from the barangay’s Development Bank of the Philippines account were in excess of the stated amounts in their corresponding disbursement vouchers.
COA said that out of the 30 checks, 16 were falsified with respect to the name of the payee and the amount, while the remaining 14 checks were falsified as to amount, resulting to a cash shortage of P780,000.
Cabusas admitted the cash shortage to the COA auditors but could not account for it.
The court maintained that Cabusas was the payee, endorser and recipient of the cash proceeds of all the 30 checks.
"The glaring discrepancy in the amount authorized vis-à-vis the amount reflected on the checks as encashed, coupled by the frequency by which the subject checks were drawn, readily reveal a deceitful hand at work. No other inference can be made except that the felonious acts of the accused were carefully calculated to illegally amass hundreds of thousands of pesos to the detriment of Barangay Rizal," the court decision read.