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Sandiganbayan orders turnover to QC jail of DOF exec in plunder raps


The Sandiganbayan First Division ordered the turnover to the Quezon City jail of Uldarico Andutan Jr., a former executive of the Department of Finance (DOF), who was arrested earlier this month on a plunder charge. Andutan, former deputy director of the DOF One-Stop Shop Inter-Agency Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center, was arrested on November 8 at the Iloilo Airport. The arrest was based on a warrant issued by the graft court on April 3, 2009 against Andutan and his co-defendants in Criminal Case no. SB-0078 filed by the Office of the Ombudsman. Andutan and his co-defendants allegedly defrauding the government of at least P73.76 million through the unlawful issuance of tax credit certificates (TCCs) to Filstar Textile Industrial Corporation from 1995 to 1997. Aside from Andutan, the others charged in the case were:

  • former Finance undersecretary and Center executive director Antonio Belicena;
  • Filipino-Chinese couple Faustino and Gloria Chingkoe;
  • TCC reviewer Asuncion Magdaet;
  • tax specialist I Rowena Malonzo;
  • Filstar corporate secretary Grace Chingkoe, and
  • Filstar representative Catalina Aranas Bautista. Graft investigators of the Office of the Ombudsman found that 28 tax certificates granted to Filstar were backed by spurious shipping documents, supply contracts, processing records, and forged delivery receipts. Sr. Supt. Benedicto Rasay Gorospe, chief of the 6th Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, PNP-CIDG in Iloilo City, said Andutan was arrested by his men with the assistance of the Aviation Security Group 6 led by Insp. Alberto Camarce. Gorospe said Andutan has been admitted to the St. Paul’s Hospital in Iloilo City after the PNP-Region 6 Health Service determined that he was suffering from elevated blood pressure. “The PNP-CIDG Region – 6th Regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit …is hereby directed to cause the transfer of the accused to the Sandiganbayan as soon as the medical condition of the accused permits, so that (he) can be committed to the Quezon City Jail, considering that the accused is charged with an unbailable offense," the Sandiganbayan ordered. Associate Justices Efren dela Cruz, Alexander Gesmundo, and Alex Quiroz signed the directive. – VVP, GMANews.TV
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