THE Sandiganbayan has upheld the graft conviction of six former officials of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (now Education Department) and a trader for the irregular purchase of building materials used for a school building in Davao City in 1991.

The anti-graft court?s fifth division dismissed the separate motions for reconsideration filed by former regional director Venancio R. Nava, assistant regional director Susana B. Cabahug, administrative officers Aquilina B. Granada and Edilberto P. Madria, finance officer Carlos B. Bautista, supply officer Felipe Pancho and private defendant Jesusa de la Cruz, president of Giomiche Inc., the private supplier of the construction materials.

All the defendants were sentenced to a maximum of 12 years in prison and ordered to return to the Education Department a total of P512,967.69 which represented the padded cost of the construction materials.

The former Education officials in the Davao region (Region XI) were likewise disqualified from holding any position in government.

In affirming the graft conviction, the court said the defendants failed to raise new issues that would compel the court to reconsider its judgment.

The defendants said the court erred in giving weight to the canvass of materials conducted by the Commission on Audit, saying auditors did not follow procedures.

But the prosecutors argued that the CoA canvass should be accorded presumption of regularity in the absence of malice, bias or gross error on the part of the auditors.

In the guilty verdict, the anti-graft court said the ?prosecution was able to prove, with testimonial and documentary evidence, taken individually and collectively, that unraveled the chain of processes that show the involvement of all the accused in a scheme successfully maneuvered by the concerted efforts of these public officers led by accused Nava who was holding the highest position, to defraud the coffers of the government.?

The graft court said there was enough basis for the prosecutors? claim that public bidding was never done. Macon Ramos Araneta