ILOILO City – A businessman here was convicted for the crime of estafa.
The Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 28 sentenced Bernie G. Miaque to suffer the penalty of eight years and one day of prision mayor as minimum to 20 years of reclusion temporal as maximum.
“(Miaque) is also ordered to pay the private complainant Taytay sa Kauswagan, Inc. (TSKI) the sum of P1,600,000 plus interest at the legal rate of 12 percent per annum until the amount is fully paid with said interest accruing at the time the Information was filed,” read the court decision penned by Acting Presiding Judge Jose Mauricio E. Gomez.
The court decision was dated April 14, 2020 but the parties concerned learned about it only recently.
Miaque’s conviction stemmed from a sale transaction he made with TSKI through its Executive Director Angel L. de Leon sometime on September 2004. He sold to the latter a Nissan Patrol wagon type.
There was no written Deed of Absolute Sale or Contract to Sell executed in favor of TSKI or De Leon. But there were check vouchers, totaling to P1.6 million, representing payments to Miaque for the said vehicle.
TSKI accused Miaque of “using false pretenses” and “employing fraudulent means” to sell the vehicle “by representing himself to be the lawful owner” of it and that the vehicle was “free from all liens and encumbrances” when the motor vehicle was actually “encumbered in favor of BASECO Finance Corporation.”
Miaque, publisher of the defunct Daily Informer, denied TSKI’s allegation and pleaded not guilty.
In the course of the court trial, De Leon testified that on January 2005 a court sheriff went to his office to get the vehicle (Nissan Patrol Wagon with plate number UV-XLK 783) and that he was told that the same was mortgaged to BASECO Finance Corporation but that Miaque was not able to pay his obligation.
De Leon told the court he was surprised, citing the Official Receipt (OR) and Certificate of Registration (CR) from his friend Miaque showing that the vehicle was not mortgaged/encumbered.
Del Leon said he was eventually able to secure a CR and OR of the vehicle from the Land Transportation Office – Iloilo City District Office showing that the vehicle was indeed incumbered.
In his defense, Miaque denied the charge of estafa. He argued that he did not sell the vehicle to TSKI but to De Leon in a personal transaction, and that the subject of the transaction was not the Nissan Patrol Wagon with plate number UV-XLK 783 but another vehicle.
The Nissan Patrol Wagon was his personal vehicle mortgaged to BASECO, according to Miaque, and he only lent this to De Leon because the real vehicle subject of their transaction was yet to be released.
He claimed he gave De Leon a Xerox copy of the CR with the word “Encumbered” printed across its face.
EVALUATION AND FINDINGS
The court gave no credence to Miaque’s arguments and ruled that “false pretense” was employed to deceive TSKI.
The vehicle subject of the case was falsely represented as free from encumbrances when in fact it was encumbered in favor of BASECO, it stressed.
“Second, to induce De Leon/TSKI to purchase the said vehicle, Miaque gave him a CR and an OR without any entry of encumbrance on the space provided for such entry,” read part of Judge Gomez’s ruling.
Clearly, according to the court, “accused fraudulently offered to sell to private complainant, TSKI through Del Leon a 2nd hand Nissan Patrol with Plate No. UV-XLK-783 while concealing from the latter the material fact that subject vehicle was mortgaged to BASECO by giving him a fake Certificate of Registration and Official Receipt…” according to the court.
“The act of deliberately misrepresenting to the private complainant that the subject vehicle is free from encumbrance, and that act of collecting money from the private complainant, only to renege on the promise to retrieve the vehicle and return to the private complainant, and for his failure to return the money collected/received, despite several demands, are clearly acts attributable to herein accused Miaque and constitutes estafa punishable under Article 315, par. 2 (a) of the Revised Penal Code,” the decision read./PN
