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MANILA, Philippines ? A former airport official facing the charge of falsification of public documents at the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court is attempting to block the proceedings against him.
In an eight-page petition, retired major general Adelberto Yap, former general manager of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA), informed the First Division that the Office of the Ombudsman failed to notify him of his indictment before the case was lodged with the court.
The Ombudsman has accused Yap of submitting a sham copy of Republic Act No. 6958 in an alleged attempt to mislead the Civil Service Commission, which earlier ruled that he was not qualified to be an MCIAA general manager since he was not a career executive service-eligible official.
Ombudsman graft investigator Jane Aguilar said Yap inserted the phrase, ?Upon nomination by the President of the Philippines,? in Section 7-b of the law, "when in truth and in fact, as [he] very well knew, no such phrase existed in the original copy of the act."
In a bid to stop the proceedings against him, Yap appealed for his right to seek reconsideration from the Ombudsman, saying that he was not duly notified about the filing of the case.
He said he received the Ombudsman's resolution recommending the filing of the case after more than two weeks it was lodged with the anti graft court or only last Monday.
Citing several deficiencies in the information, Yap also pointed out he cannot be charged with falsification of a public document since the evidence used to pursue the case against him was merely a fax copy.
The crime of falsification by alteration or intercalation only applied to a genuine document, he stressed./Inquirer
