Former deputy Ombudsman receives 4-month sentence

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MANILA – An ex deputy Ombudsman was found guilty of perjury and sentenced to four months in prison after not declaring his three-story residence amounting to P4 million in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

Margarito Gervacio Jr., who served as overall deputy Ombudsman from 1999 to 2006, was charged by the Sandiganbayan antigraft court’s Second Division after he admitted that he did not include his residence in his SALN last 2003.

“It appears that the guilty plea was entered into deliberately and with full knowledge of its effects,” the court said on Monday in its December 2 ruling.

It added, “With the application of the mitigating circumstance of a plea of guilty, the court hereby finds the accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of perjury.

The statement was signed by by Associate Justice Teresita Diaz-Baldos, the division chair, and was concurred in by Associate Justices Napoleon Inoturan and Maria Cristina Cornejo.