MANILA -- The Sandiganbayan acquitted Ben Conti, a former official of the Ministry of Local Government under the Marcos government, of a graft charge concerning a scheme involving P93.5 million government funds.

In a decision issued by the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division last November 23, the graft court said the prosecution failed to prove two important elements in the crime: undue injury to the government and conspiracy.

Co-defendants former Deputy Prime Minister Jose A. Roño and former Ministry of Local Government budget officer Alberto B. Paras, died during the pendency of the case. This resulted to the dismissal of the charges against them.

Contim Roño and Paras were charged with illegal diversion of P93.5 million released by the Ministry of Budget on November 29, 1985 for the Barangay Education and Entertainment System (BEES) program under Executive Order No. 1068.

Less than a month later, however, then President Ferdinand Marcos issued a memo dated December 21, 1985 directing the transfer of the money to the Office of the President.

Government prosecutors said 10 treasury warrants were issued on Roño’s authority and made payable to the Office of the President.

The defendants, however, produced a receipt showing that Marcos acknowledged full delivery of the amount on February 10, 1986.

Prosecutors challenged the document, claiming it was forged as supported by the results of an examination conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

But the court said government lawyers were wrong to rely on the NBI report as proof of conspiracy among the accused. The court added that the report was "not sufficient to generate a conclusion that the accused Conti forged said document or had a hand in its forgery."

“The report merely concludes that the questioned signatures were not written by one and the same person (President Marcos),” the Sandiganbayan pointed out.

Concerning the issue of “undue injury” to the government, the graft court said prosecutors were not able to prove that the funds were malversed because the records of the Office of the President did not reflect any fund transfer.

“The creation of the subject account, the withdrawals, and the delivery were all made in compliance with the directive of transferring or reallocating the BEES funds to the OP,” said the Sandiganbayan.