(Eagle News) — The Sandiganbayan has acquitted former Professional Regulation Commission Commissioner Alfredo Po of all the criminal charges filed against him in connection with what the Ombudsman said was an anomalous lease contract signed by the agency in 2012.
The anti-graft court’s seventh division made the acquittal after it found the prosecution was unable to prove Po’s guilt “beyond reasonable doubt” in the charges of graft, direct bribery, robbery, and violation of the code of conduct for public officials.
The cases stemmed from what the Ombudsman said was a lease contract the PRC signed in 2012 despite an absence of compliance with government procurement rules.
“Beyond reasonable doubt”
In its 35-page resolution, the division said an accused “must be acquitted even though his innocence may be doubted” where there is “reasonable doubt as to (his) guilt.”
The division said this was because “the constitutional right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty can only be overthrown by proof beyond reasonable doubt.”
In the case of Po— who was arrested in an entrapment operation that saw him accepting over P400,000 from the lessor of the building that would supposedly house PRC’s Baguio office—the seventh division noted that “the true nature of (that) transaction… still remains buried in secret.”
The division said determining what the money was for was key to establishing Po’s criminal liability.
“When guilt is not proven with moral certainty, it has been our policy of long standing that the presumption of innocence must be favored, and exoneration granted as a matter of right,” the division said.