The Philippine Online Chronicles

The Sandiganbayan on Wednesday sentenced an incumbent Sorsogon congressman to 10 years of imprisonment  after he was found guilty of graft and falsification of public documents.

The antigraft court's third division has also disqualified Sorsogon second district Rep. Jose G. Solis from holding any public office. Solis is running for governor of Sorsogon province in the May 10 polls.

In a 67-page decision penned by Associate Justice Efren dela Cruz, the Sandiganbayan found Solis guilty of violating Section 3-G of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, for allegedly being involved in a questionable land transfer when he was still chief of the National Mapping and Resource Information Administration (Namria).

Solis, according to the report, had allegedly falsified public documents in order to grant a piece of inalienable land to a private claimant named Florencia Garcia-Diaz in 1999. The 4,689-hectare lot in question is part of the Nueva Ecija military reservation and therefore could not be registered to any private individual.

“In effect the republic gave away an inalienable and unregistered part of the public domain,” read the Sandiganbayan report.

For the falsification case alone, the 70-year-old lawmaker will be facing an imprisonment of two years and four months and one day to six years and one day.

Also found guilty of the graft charges was his co-accused Diaz, who had allegedly entered into a compromise agreement with Solis for the illegal transaction.

The others accused of graft, namely former Solicitor General Ricardo Galvez, former Namria officer-in-charge Salvador Bonnevie, former Remote Sensing and Resource Data Analysis Department head Virgilio Fabian Jr., and senior remote sensing technologists Ireneo Valencia and Arthur Viernes, were acquitted due to lack of evidence against them.

The accused were given five days to double their bail bond which shall be used for their temporary freedom. Solis said he will be filing a motion for reconsideration.