MANILA – The Sandiganbayan anti-graft court has found a former cashier of the Alcala Water District in Pangasinan guilty of malversation.
The Sandiganbayan Sixth Division affirmed the February 22, 2021 decision of the Villasis, Pangasinan Regional Trial Court Branch 50 finding Darwin C. Viloria guilty, sentencing him of up to seven years imprisonment.
The graft court ordered Viloria to pay a fine of PHP163,436, the amount of the malversed funds and PHP155,239 in civil liability to the water district.
The prosecution said Viloria, between 2000 to 2006, misappropriated some PHP163,436.
According to the RTC, the missing funds were “imputable to the accused’s acts of issuing cash advances, not issuing official receipts, and issuing fictitious ones."
The court was not swayed by Viloria's claim that it was his boss, former general manager Elpidio Sacayanan, who instructed him to give the collections as cash advances to him instead of remitting it.
“There is no doubt that accused-appellant was given the opportunity to explain the unremitted collections. However, he failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for the same, and he even admitted his liability for the unremitted collections when he offered to pay the same,” the court said.
Citing Supreme Court precedents, the tribunal said consent by an accountable officer to the improper or unauthorized use of public funds by other persons, “is not a valid defense in malversation cases." (PNA)
