Sandigan acquits 2 TRC execs of malversation

By Maricel V. Cruz

THE Sandiganbayan has acquitted two former Technology Resource Center (TRC) officials of graft and malversation in connection with another Priority Development Assistant Fund scam.

Former TRC director general Dennis Cunanan and corporate support services manager Francisco Figura were acquitted by the Sandiganbayan’s second division due to the failure of the Ombudsman to prove their guilt.

In the decision promulgated on August 4, the antigraft court noted the “unequivocal misgivings” of the two former officials in entering into a P10 million project with the nongovernment organization Philippine Environmental and Ecological Development Association from 2007 to 2013.

“With respect to accused Figura and Cunanan, however, they are properly entitled to exculpation taking into consideration the misgiving and protestation they timely raised with regards to the PDAF transactions,” the anti-graft court said in the decision written by the division chairmann Justice Oscar Herrera Jr., that was concurred in by Associate Justices Edgardo Caldona and Arthur Malabaguio. Cunanan, Figura, as well as TRC legislative liaison officer Maria Rosalinda Lacsamana and PEEDAI chief executive officer Butch Canoy, chief operating officer Vincent Jaudian, treasurer Mercy Cabig and vice president Alfredo Soriano were charged by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2019 of conspiring with one another and with the late Compostela Valley Rep. Prospero Amatong for misusing government funds for projects which turned out to be non-existent.