The Philippine Star
www.philstar.com
Publish Date: [Thursday, February 06, 2003]
Sandigan finds Campo guilty
By Jose Rodel Clapano
The Sandiganbayan sentenced yesterday to one year and 10 months imprisonment
Florencio Campomanes, the honorary president of the Federation Internationale des
Echecs (FIDE), for "failure to render account on the disbursement" of the Philippine
Sports Commission’s (PSC’s) funds for the June 6-25, 1992 World Chess Olympiad
amounting to P12.8 million.
At the same time, Associate Justice Ma. Cristina Cortez-Estrada, in a 24-page decision, acquitted former PSC chairman Cecilio Hechanova, who
was charged as Campomanes’ co-accused, for failure of the prosecution to prove conspiracy.
"We have reviewed the entire evidence on record and could not find anything which
would positively and conclusively show that accused Hechanova induced accused Campomanes not to liquidate the subject funds after a demand for the same was made
by the Commission on Audit, which could have convinced us that indeed, conspiracy
was present," Estrada said.
Estrada explained that in legal parlance, "conspiracy is attendant when two or more
persons come to an agreement concerning the commission of a felony and decide to
commit it.
"Conspiracy must be established by the same quantum of evidence as any other ingredient of the offense, i.e, by proof beyond reasonable doubt. Such evidence must
show intentional participation in the transaction with a view to the furtherance of the
common design or purpose," Estrada said.
On the other hand, in rendering the guilty verdict on Campomanes for violating Article
218 in relation to Article 222 of the Revised Penal Code, Estrada cited that COA
chairman Pascasio Banaria, in a letter dated Jan. 19, 1994, informed Campomanes that
a special audit on the financial assistance to FIDE revealed that the same did not reach
the coffers of FIDE and the disbursements were not duly accounted for.
"A demand, according to Banaria, was being made upon Campomanes to immediately
refund the amount or submit to the COA detailed accounting covering the liquidation of
the subject amount. Up to the present time, Campomanes has not rendered such accounting. Clearly, therefore, Campomanes is guilty of violating Article 218 of the
Revised Penal Code, requiring him to render accounts," Estrada said.
Court records showed that on Aug. 25, 1992, a total of P12,876,008 was disbursed
and entrusted to the FIDE for the World Chess Olympiad in Manila, hosted by the
Philippine government from June 6-25, 1992.
In his testimony, Campomanes said that he was president of the FIDE from 1982 to
1995.
During his tenure, Campomanes said that he conducted chess competitions in countries
other than the Philippines such as the Chess Olympiads in 1986 in Dubai, 1984 and
1988 in Thessaloniki, Greece and 1990 in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia.
Campomanes said FIDE, through funds of its own or through the host country’s
government, funded these chess Olympiads.
He said FIDE was never asked to liquidate any of the funds, which it had received from
the organizing committee, and it was not the practice of the FIDE, with respect to
Chess Olympiads hosted in the countries, to account for the funds received from the
sponsoring Committee.
"It was the other way around, FIDE asked the host countries to submit a financial
report on the entire event," Campomanes said.
Campomanes said that when he received the funding from the PSC for the 1992 Chess
Olympiad, nothing was stated about an agreement for any liquidation.
He said he also thought that signing the 13 checks covering the disbursements for the
Chess Olympiad was sufficient, adding that he never directly received any demand or
notice in between the issuance of the checks to liquidate prior to the release of the other
checks.
"The only time that I knew of the obligation on the part of the FIDE to liquidate was in
1994 or two years after the Olympiad," Campomanes said.
In her testimony, prosecution witness Rexy Mendoza Ramos, team leader of the COA
auditors who audited the transactions of the PSC from March 1990 to June 1992, said
the examination of the documents presented to them showed that the financial grants
made to the FIDE "were tainted with irregularities."
"The irregularity was limited to the finding that there was no official receipt issued and
there was no liquidation required by the auditing manual of the government," Ramos
said.
Estrada said that Campomanes, as president of the FIDE, a private international
organization, and thus a private entity, was the one liable to render accounts on the
grant that he had received on behalf of FIDE from the PSC.
She cited that Ramos "herself testified that FIDE was supposed to render an account of
the subject funds because it was the one which expended the same."
