The Sandiganbayan anti-graft court has convicted a former board chairman of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. for inflating costs on official meal receipts in 2000.
Raul Montemayor has been sentenced to from six months to two years for falsifying official receipts on official meals. He will also have to pay a fine of P9,000.
According to a press statement from the Office of the Ombudsman, the government agency tasked with prosecuting graft and corruption, Montemayor inflated expenses in three official meetings in May, June, and July 2000.
He claimed he spent P6,958 at Tatoy’s Sea Food Restaurant in Iloilo when the meal only actually cost P958. He also claimed expenses of P7,446.50 after a meeting at Saisaki in Quezon City after actually only spending P1,446.50. A third meeting, at Whistle Stop in Makati, was reimbursed for P1,852.50 instead of just P852.50.
Government prosecutors said “it has been established that the amounts written in the subject receipts attached to the certifications submitted by the accused Montemayor were altered.”
The Court, in cosnidering Montemayor’s sentence, will take into account that Montemayor voluntarily surrendered when questioned about the expenses, and that he paid for the meals when the Commission on Audit noticed discrepancies.
