QUEZON CITY – The Sandiganbayan has found Evelyn de Leon, former president of the Philippine Social Development Foundation, Inc. (PSFDI), guilty of two counts of graft and two counts of malversation of public funds for defrauding the government.
The court sentenced De Leon to 29 to 39 years in prison and imposed a P3.5 million fine, which will incur a 6% annual interest until the conviction is deemed final.
PSFDI, linked to the convicted “pork barrel scam queen” Janet Lim Napoles, was involved in utilizing the priority development assistance fund (PDAF) of Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez.
In 2022, charges were filed against De Leon for misappropriating P1.5 million in November 2007 and P2 million in February 2008 from Rep. Rodriguez’s PDAF.
The Sandiganbayan’s Seventh Division, in a 35-page ruling, convicted De Leon under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and for the malversation of P3.5 million in public funds.
“De Leon signed each and every liquidation document to substantiate massive government expenditures, fully aware that they were utterly false. She intended to defraud the government with every signature she affixed, diverting funds intended for ‘marginalized farmers’ into the NGO she represented,” the ruling stated.
De Leon’s co-accused, former Technology Resource Center (TRC) director general Antonio Ortiz, remains at large, leading to only De Leon standing trial.
The Seventh Division noted that De Leon benefited from Ortiz’s acceptance of irregular liquidation documents, which justified previous and additional fund disbursements.
The court emphasized that De Leon failed to refute the evidence presented by the prosecution, which proved her signatures were on falsified liquidation reports.
The disbursement reports lacked detail, providing no breakdown of the items in the “starter sets” or identification of suppliers. Furthermore, none of the supposed beneficiaries confirmed receiving the items, with some denying their signatures were on the documents or receiving any assistance from PSFDI or Rep. Rodriguez.
Prosecution witness and whistleblower Benhur Luy revealed that the beneficiaries’ names were copied from records at JLN Corp., with the signatures forged by JLN employees.
Luy testified that no livelihood projects were implemented, despite funds being released, and he, along with De Leon and others, prepared falsified liquidation documents.
The Sandiganbayan concluded that De Leon did not present any evidence to challenge Luy’s testimony and that both she and Ortiz conspired to misappropriate public funds.
In her testimony, state auditor Joan Agnes Alfafaras stated that Rep. Rodriguez’s PDAF was released to the TRC, which transferred P1.35 million and P1.8 million to PSFDI after deducting a 10% management fee.
The court ruled that De Leon and Ortiz conspired to divert government funds to non-existent projects, misappropriating P3.5 million under two SAROs through PSFDI.
The decision was authored by Associate Justice Ma. Theresa Dolores C. Gomez-Estoesta, with Associate Justices Zaldy V. Trespeses and Georgina D. Hidalgo concurring.