The Sandiganbayan found comedian Roderick Paulate guilty of one count of corruption and nine counts of falsification of public documents in connection with the hiring of ghost employees in 2010 during his first term as a Quezon City councilor.
It should be noted that following his election as Quezon City District 2 councilor in 2010, Paulate was ousted from office due to his suspected hiring of ghost employees from July to November of that year.
The Office of the Ombudsman officially filed the case against Paulate in 2018, alleging that the actor-politician falsified a Job Order/Contract of Service, including the signatures of fictitious contractors, in order to compel the city government to allocate funds for their salaries.
Paulate’s overall sentence ranged from 10 and a half years to 62 years in prison, with the corruption charge accounting for six to eight years and each fabrication offense (eight for public papers, one by public officer) accounting for six months to six years.
Aside from prison time, Paulate was ordered to pay a P10,000 fine for each count of falsification, for a total of P90,000, and is permanently barred from holding public office.
Vicente Bajamunde, Paulate’s driver and liaison officer, was also convicted, but cleared of the fabrication charges.
Both Paulate and Bajamunde were sentenced to pay the government P1.109 million (plus 6% interest until final payment). — the amount of public funds the two collected from the City Treasurer’s Office for the supposed salaries of the hired employees.
