THE Sandiganbayan has sustained the graft conviction of a Professional Regulation Commission Optometry Board executive appointed by then President Joseph Estrada for taking an examination over which she had some degree of control.

In a resolution promulgated March 2, Associate Justice Jose Hernandez said accused Marissa Callanta-Oliveros failed to raise new issues in her motion for reconsideration.

The suit was filed by the Integrated Philippine Association of Optometrists after she took and passed a government exam on Feb. 2, 2002.

In an earlier decision, the graft court sustained Prosecutor Jacinto dela Cruz Jr. who said the law prohibited the accused from taking the special exam of ocular pharmacology for optometrists.

The accused, who was appointed to her post by Estrada during his term, was also perpetually disqualified from holding public office.

Oliveros argued that she wrote a letter dated Jan. 28, 2002 to PRC?s Antonieta Fortuna-Ibe that she would inhibit herself from handling the exams that she was supposed to take, while asking to be excused from her duties as Optometry board member for propriety reasons.

But the Sandiganbayan noted that there was no proof the PRC gave its nod.

The prosecution presented Dr. Ligaya Perez, Optometry board chairman, who testified that Oliveros was an examiner in the 2000 and 2001 special pharmacology exams.

?In this case, the prosecution was correct in saying that by personally handling the conduct of the first two examinations, she gained immense access to confidential information about the preparation, contents, process, procedure, facilities [including the actual list of probable questions and their sources] and materials for examination,? the graft court said. Macon Ramos-Araneta