MANILA — The Sandiganbayan has acquitted the business manager of a consultancy group of her graft charge for allegedly giving P104,162.31 to the now-deceased mayor of Barobo, Surigao del Sur in exchange for a P25-million feasibility study contract 17 years ago. In a 56-page decision, the court’s Fourth Division said the prosecution failed to prove the complicity of Joselyn Cabo, the business manager of the Orient Integrated Development Consultancy, Inc., when she gave the money to late Mayor Bonifacio Balahay in August 2000. State prosecutors claimed the money was given “in consideration” of the World Bank-funded feasibility study earlier conducted for the town’s Community-Based Resource Management Project. State prosecutors had found the project anomalous because it was awarded to OIDCI in 1999 even without evaluation by the CBRMP project team. During trial, Gabo’s defense insisted that the money was only a “donation,” and that the feasibility study project was already completed in July 2000 before the money was given.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer March 19, 2017 14:03 UTC