Manila: A former mayor of an Eastern Visayas town has been sentenced to jail for declaring the name of another woman as his “wife” in his official records.
Arnelito Garing, a former mayor of the town of Cabucgayan in Biliran province, was sentenced to two eight-month prison terms for perjury by the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan after he listed the name of a woman who was not his legal wife as his spouse in his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (Saln) declaration for the years 2000 and 2001.
Court records said Garing identified a certain Maurilina Oledan Garing as his spouse when he was actually married to Generosa Arcenio Dosal.
Garing said after living together for a brief time, Dosal left him and the last time he saw her was in September 2004.
In 2006, Garing filed for a petition for declaration of presumptive death of Dosal, which was granted by the family court of Tacloban. But the anti-graft court said that Garing “maliciously, deliberately and untruthfully” declared the name of his wife as Maurilina to commit perjury.
Perjury is the wilful and corrupt assertion of a falsehood under oath or affirmation administered by authority of law on a material matter.
During trial, Garing admitted that he was married to Dosal and that the marriage had not been annulled or dissolved yet. As defence, the accused claimed “the Saln does not explicitly state that the names therein should be the legal spouse, not the common-law wife”.
The Saln declaration is one of the basis used by anti-graft investigators to determine if a certain government official is keeping ill-gotten gains.
“This court is convinced that his [Garing’s] actions constituted a wilful and deliberate assertion of falsehood. As a municipal mayor, a high-ranking public officer, tasked with the implementation of the laws of the land, it is highly implausible that he in good faith believed that he could substitute the name of Maurilina in the place of his legal wife Generosa [Dosal],” the anti-graft court said.
In rendering his verdict, Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Rafael Lagos said, “The reason for the execution of the Saln by a public official such as accused Garing was to ensure that he was embodying the values of responsibility, integrity, competence, and loyalty and that he acts with patriotism and justice, leads a modest life and upholds public interest over his personal interest.”
“The prosecution also makes a good point in stating that the non-disclosure thereof sets a dangerous precedent, as well as opens the sluice gates to abuse and utter concealment of various cognate crimes, including but not limited to nepotism, violation of the Anti-Dummy Law, accumulation of ill-gotten wealth and money laundering,” it added.
The Saln is a vital tool in the Philippine government’s war against corruption, and a number of officials, including a Supreme Court Chief Justice, have been sacked for misleading Saln declarations.
