This case has been cited 1 times or more.
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2004-12-17 |
DAVIDE JR., CJ. |
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| On 16 July 2002, the Sandiganbayan promulgated a decision[8] (1) convicting petitioners Edgar and Teresita Teves of violation of Section 3(h) of the Anti-Graft Law; (2) imposing upon them an indeterminate penalty of imprisonment of nine years and twenty-one days as minimum to twelve years as maximum; and (3) ordering the confiscation of all their rights, interests, and participation in the assets and properties of the Valencia Cockpit and Recreation Center in favor of the Government, as well as perpetual disqualification from public office.[9] The conviction was anchored on the finding that the petitioners possessed pecuniary interest in the said business enterprise on the grounds that (a) nothing on record appears that Mayor Teves divested himself of his pecuniary interest in said cockpit; (b) as of April 1992, Teresita Teves was of record the "owner/licensee" of the cockpit; and (c) since Mayor Teves and Teresita remained married to each other from 1983 until 1992, their property relations as husband and wife, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, was that of the conjugal partnership of gains. Hence, the cockpit is a conjugal property over which the petitioners have pecuniary interest. This pecuniary interest is prohibited under Section 89(2) of R.A. No. 7160, otherwise known as the Local Government Code (LGC) of 1991, and thus falls under the prohibited acts penalized in Section 3(h) of the Anti-Graft Law. | |||||