MANILA - Two former officials of the Department of Finance (DOF) indicted in an alleged irregular grant of tax credits committed more than 20 years ago have been acquitted by the Sandiganbayan. In a 39-page decision dated March 11 and recently shared online, the anti-graft court's Second Division acquitted Raul De Vera and Brandy Marzan of estafa and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act due to the "failure of the prosecution to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt". De Vera and Marzan, then Officer-in-Charge of the Net Local Content Division and senior tax specialist, respectively, of the defunct DOF One-Stop-Shop-Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center, were implicated in alleged undue benefits granted to companies between 1997 and 1999. The anti-graft court also cleared De Vera and Marzan of civil liability, citing that "there being a failure to establish that the acts of the accused are felonious, the fact from which the civil liability might arise does not exist". The case involved giving supposedly unwarranted benefits to Land Car Inc. (LCI), which filed a claim for a tax credit, and falsified sales invoices for 11 buses at PHP4.8 million per bus when the actual price of the bus was only PHP1.47 million. The charges claimed that despite knowledge of overpricing, misrepresentation, and falsification, the officials approved and granted a tax credit certificate (TCC) amounting to PHP5.5 million to LCI. The case against their boss, former undersecretary Antonio Belicena who was the center's Executive Director, was dismissed on November 2021 following his death. Before his death, Belicena's lawyers sought a suspension or dismissal of the proceedings due to the accused's dementia which rendered him incompetent to stand trial. Likewise in 2021, the Supreme Court upheld the 2011 ruling of the Sandiganbayan clearing Belicena in a plunder case arising from another company in a TCC scam. Another official, Deputy Administrator Uldarico Andutan Jr., jumped bail and remained at large. His case is archived until he can be brought to the jurisdiction of the court. (PNA) }