Wednesday, July 02, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
THE Office of the Ombudsman on Tuesday indicted before the Sandiganbayan for 64 counts of criminal charges former officials of the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp.
Among those who were charged by Ombudsman Maria Merceditas Navarro-Gutierrez were Obed Cutaran, former executive vice president of the mortgage firm, and Celso Fernandez 3rd, former manager of the Community Mortgage Group.
In a resolution, Gutierrez approved the recommendation of Graft Investigation and Prosecution Officer Janet Cabigas-Vejerano to indict the two officials with 32 counts for violating Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and 32 counts of falsification of public documents.
The Ombudsman also included private respondent Guadalupe Dominguez as a co-accused in the 32 counts of graft.
The anti-graft body said that there is probable cause to charge the respondents since conspiracy was very well established.
“Conspiracy in the present case is founded on a firm basis, not only through documentary evidence but also by sizing up the concerted action of respondents Fernandez, Cutaran and Dominguez who have common criminal design and purpose to cheat defraud or deceive the rightful recipients of their home lots,” the ruling stated.
The Ombudsman exonerated respondents Domingo Paguia, Regulo Coloma and Vicente Garcia, who successively served the Registers of Deeds of Caloocan City.
Based on the facts of the case, there were around 302 families belonging to the urban poor organization Samahan ng Mahihirap sa PNR-Medina in Makati City who applied for a P7.27 million loan from the mortgage company in January 1990.
The loan was used to purchase a 5.62-hectare public land in Barangay Makatipo in Malaria, Caloocan City, under the Community Mortgage Program.
According to the program’s policy, individual titles to the subdivided lots will be issued to the group’s members only upon full payment of their share of the loan.
But investigators opined that in the year 1998, Fernandez and Cutaran approved the release of mortgage on 38 lots even if partial payments were only made.
The Ombudsman said all of the titles were released to only one person—to Dominguez—who was neither an employee of the mortage firm nor a member of the urban poor group. -- Jomar Canlas
_______________________________________________________________________
