767 Phil. 738
BERSAMIN, J.:
x x x That on or about the 16th day of February 1996, at Barangay Luyang, Municipality of Carmen, Province of Cebu, Philippines, and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, above-named accused, public officers, having been elected, appointed and qualified to such public positions above mentioned, taking advantage of their public positions and committing the offense in relation to office, conniving and confederating together and mutually helping with each other, with deliberate intent, with manifest partiality and evident bad faith, did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously destroy the fence made of wooden posts and straight wires in an agricultural land situated at Luyang, Carmen, and owned by Aurelia F. Bernadas, without proper court order or authority of law, thus accused in the performance of their official functions had given unwarranted benefits, preference or advantage to themselves, to the damage, injury and prejudice to Aurelia F. Bernadas.[3]
WHEREFORE, facts and law considered, the Court finds accused TEOFILO GIANGAN, LIBERATO DOMAIL, JR., AND SANTOS BONTIA guilty beyond reasonable doubt as principals of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and hereby sentences them to suffer an indeterminate penalty of EIGHT (8) YEARS and ONE (1) DAY to FIFTEEN (15) years imprisonment, with perpetual disqualification from public office pursuant to Section 9, Republic Act No. 3019, as amended. Dura Lex, Sed Lex. The law may be harsh, but the law is the law.
Accused are likewise ordered to pay jointly and solidarity unto private complainant the sum of P100,000.00 for moral damages, P11,000.00 for actual damages and P20,000.00 for attorney's fees.
SO ORDERED.[12]
WHEREFORE, premises considered the judgment of conviction appealed from is hereby AFFIRMED, with the following modifications:Explaining the affirmance, the Sandiganbayan observed as follows:
1) That the duration of the penalty of imprisonment imposed upon the accused be reduced to six years and one day to ten years; 2) That the award for actual damages be reduced to P6,200.00; and 3) That the award for moral damages be likewise reduced to P25,000.00
SO ORDERED.[13]
Element No. 1 that the accused are public officers
The accused-appellants do not deny the respective positions that they held in Barangay Luyang, Carmen, Cebu, when the fence was demolished, namely, Teofilo Giangan as Barangay Chairman, Liberate Domail as Barangay Councilor and Santos Bontia as Barangay Tanod. What they do contest vehemently is the application to them of Section 3 (e) of R.A. No. 3019, as amended. They assert that the prohibited act mentioned in said subsection, of causing undue injury or granting unwarranted benefit to any party through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence, applies exclusively to officers and employees of offices or government corporations charged with the grant of licenses of permits or other concessions, which they allegedly are not.
The argument clung to by the accused lacks merit. This issue had long been settled in the case of Mejorada vs. Sandiganbayan where the Honorable Supreme Court held that Section 3 (e) of RA 3019 is not only limited to government officials or public officers or government corporations who charged with the duty of granting licenses, permits or other concessions but also to other officials and employees in the government without any distinction.[14] x x x
x x x x
Element No. 2 that the accused acted with manifest partiality and evident bad faith
In determining the existence of this element, a preliminary discussion is entailed on the collateral issue of whether or not the portion of the complainant's land from which the fence was demolished could be considered a right of way over which the barangay has acquired a right through prescription. The lower court held that there was no easement of right of way in this case. The accused-appellants, however, contend that the lower court erred in refusing to appreciate that the barangay road in question is a property of the public dominion and not of private ownership. Pursuing further their assignment of error, they insist that the road, which has allegedly been used as a passageway of people coming from the seashore for more than 40 years, has acquired the status of an easement by virtue of prescription.
x x x x
We now come to the issue of whether or not the act of the accused-appellants in destroying the fence on the complainant's property was attended by manifest partiality and evident bad faith, and thus granted unwarranted benefit to themselves, to the damage and injury of complainant Aurelia Bernadas. The Information alleges that the demolition of the fence was made by the accused without any court order or authority of the law. This Court finds that the allegation is substantiated in the sense that no such court order or other authority was indeed presented by the accused-appellants by virtue of which they undertook the demolition of the fence. In fact, the demolition appeared to have been done clandestinely and without the knowledge of the owner who was thereby deprived of all possible opportunity to take remedial measures to protect her proprietary rights.
x x x x
The above discussion about the lack of authority of the accused-appellants to demolish the fence of the complainant, and the brazen challenge of accused Giangan for the complainant to file a case against him for his act, reinforces the finding of the lower court that the accused acted with evident bad faith. Bad faith does not simply connote bad judgment or negligence; it imputes a dishonest purpose or some moral obliquity and conscious doing of a wrong; a breach of sworn duty through some motive or intent or ill will; it partakes of the nature of fraud. It contemplates a state of mind affirmatively operating with furtive design or some motive of self-interest or ill will for ulterior purposes. Evident bad faith connotes a manifest deliberate intent on the part of the accused to do wrong or cause damage.
Aside from evident bad faith, the Court likewise appreciates the element of manifest partiality in the act of the accused-appellants. The prosecution presented testimonial evidence, which was not rebutted, that other property owners similarly situated as complainant Bernadas were allowed to enclose their properties, such that the road traversing them was moved to a different location. Furthermore, some property owners were allowed to construct "riprap" on their property without the accused having lifted a finger to contradict them. It therefore appears that the accused were not at all stripped of bias when they exercised their option only against the complainant and turned a blind eye towards other property owners similarly situated. Such behavior undoubtedly bespeaks of partiality which has been defined as synonymous to bias which excites a disposition to see and report matters as they are wished for rather than as they are.
Element No. 3 that the act caused undue injury
As defined in Pecho vs. Sandiganbayan, causing undue injury means actual injury or damage which must be established by evidence. The word "undue" means "more than necessary, not proper, or illegal"; and "injury" means "any wrong or damage done to another, either in his person, rights, reputation or property; the invasion of any legally protected interest of another." Actual damage, in the context of these definitions, is akin to that in civil law.
x x x x
Using the aforecited law and jurisprudence as guide, this Court finds that the lower court correctly ruled that undue injury was caused to the complainant under the obtaining circumstances. There is no doubt that the complainant had spent an amount for the construction of the fence which the accused-appellants eventually demolished, aside from the fact that she was restrained from exercising her proprietary rights.
We tackle the plea for acquittal made by the accused-appellants on the strength of the argument that they did not grant unwarranted benefit to themselves, based on the testimony of SPO4 Paquito Abellar that the accused deposited all the nine posts in the premises of the Carmen police station. It must be stressed that as held in a number of cases, there are two ways by which a public official violates Section 3 (e) or R.A. No. 3019, as amended, namely: 1) by causing undue injury to any party, including the government, or 2) by granting any private party any unwarranted benefit, advantage or preference. In the Fonacier case, it was distinctly stated that the third element of the offense is satisfied when the questioned conduct causes undue injury to any party, including the government, or gives any unwarranted benefit, advantage or preference.[15]
The second element enumerates the different modes by which means the offense penalized in Section 3 (e) may be committed. "Partiality" is synonymous with "bias" which "excites a disposition to see and report matters as they are wished for rather than as they are." "Bad faith does not simply connote bad judgment or negligence; it imputes a dishonest purpose or some moral obliquity and conscious doing of a wrong; a breach of sworn duty through some motive or intent or ill will; it partakes of the nature of fraud." "Gross negligence has been so defined as negligence characterized by the want of even slight care, acting or omitting to act in a situation where there is a duty to act, not inadvertently but willfully and intentionally with a conscious indifference to consequences in so far as other persons may be affected. It is the omission of that care which even inattentive and thoughtless men never fail to take on their own property." These definitions prove all too well that the three modes are distinct and different from each other. Proof of the existence of any of these modes in connection with the prohibited acts under Section 3 (e) should suffice to warrant conviction. (Italics is part of the original text)Conformably with the foregoing, we find that the Sandiganbayan erred in ruling that Giangan and his co-accused had acted with gross bad faith and manifest impartiality when they removed the wooden posts of the fence of Bernadas. On the contrary, their actuations evinced good faith. We note that it was not at all disputed that access through the road had long been permitted even by the owner and her predecessor. In that context, Giangan as the barangay chairman acted upon the honest and sincere belief that he was then summarily abating the nuisance that a regular user of the obstructed road had just reported to him. A further indication of the good faith of Giangan was the turning over of the wooden posts to the police station, manifesting that the accused were acting within the scope of their authority. Good faith means honest, lawful intent; the condition of acting without knowledge of fraud, and without intent to assist in a fraudulent or otherwise unlawful scheme.[23] Also, the act complained of was rendered inconsistent with the manifest partiality and bad faith that the law punished.