Ex-CIDG Chief Nestorio Gualberto faces raps before the Sandiganbayan

Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman upheld its earlier Resolution for the filing of criminal charges against former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief Nestorio Gualberto.
In a Memorandum, Acting Ombudsman Orlando C. Casimiro junked Gualberto’s Motion for Reconsideration (MR) which earlier prevented the anti-graft office from filing two counts of violation of RA 6713 (Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees) before the Sandiganbayan.

The Memorandum stated that Gualberto raised issues in his MR that were already addressed in the assailed Resolution.

Gualberto, currently director of the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) Enforcement and Security Service (BOC-ESS), was ordered charged for his failure to file his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN) for the years 1998 and 2000.

The OMB-Field Investigation Office (OMB-FIO) earlier accused Gualberto of failure to file his SALNs for the years 1995-1998 and 2000-2001.

However, according to the Ombudsman, the only cause of action against Gualberto was for his alleged non-filing of SALN for 1998 and 2000 because under the law, the prescriptive period for which a person can be criminally charged for failure to file SALN is eight years. However, the complaint against Gualberto was filed only on 07 Sept. 2006 or eight years and five months after the respondent was supposed to file his SALN for the year 1997 (30 April 1998). - https://www.affordablecebu.com/