Sandiganbayan denies Roderick Paulate’s appeal of conviction over ‘ghost employees’

The Sandiganbayan has denied the appeal of actor Roderick Paulate to reverse his conviction over the hiring of fictitious job contractors in 2010 while serving as a Quezon City councilor.

In a resolution dated January 23, the court's Seventh Division denied Paulate’s motion for reconsideration of its November 2022 decision for lack of merit.

"After a careful perusal of the arguments raised by accused, the court finds no cogent reason to disturb its earlier findings. Notably, accused failed to raise new material allegations that would persuade the court to reconsider or reverse its previous finding of guilt," the court said.

"Moreover, the arguments raised by accused have already been considered and passed upon in the assailed decision," it added.

The anti-graft court also denied the appeal of his then-driver and liaison officer, Vicente Bajamunde.

In his motion, Paulate said that he had no knowledge that the job contractors were fictitious or nonexistent. He also said there was no attempt from the prosecution to prove that he knew they did not exist.

The court said that "according to the best of his personal knowledge, these job contractors exist and that they are real persons."

Still, Paulate was expected to carry out his duties as a public official with "utmost responsibility and integrity," the court said.

"Since public funds will be disbursed as wages for the job contractors, accused, in choosing to fill up all the 30 job order contract positions in his office, should have ensured that the people he recommended actually exist. But even after the issue [of the] ghost employees came out, he did nothing," the Sandiganbayan said.

"The irregular hiring process, the failure to verify, and thereafter ignoring the issues only strengthen the conclusion that there is nothing to verify because the job contractors do not exist. These are clear manifestations of bad faith on the part of accused," it added. 

Paulate and Bajamunde were sentenced to six to eight years in jail and were permanently disqualified from holding public office for their graft convictions.

In addition, Paulate and Bajamunde were ordered by the court to jointly and severally pay the government P1.109 million, with an interest rate of 6% per year, until fully paid.

Paulate was also sentenced to six months to six years in jail and must pay a fine of P10,000 for each of the eight counts of falsification of public documents. —VBL, GMA Integrated News