A Quezon City court yesterday junked the criminal charges filed against the owner and incorporators of WellMed Dialysis Center in connection with the alleged fraudulent claims before the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. due to technicality.
The Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 219 granted the motion to quash filed by WellMed co-owner Dr. Bryan Sy for the 17 counts of the complex crime of estafa through falsification of public documents filed by the National Bureau of Investigation and PhilHealth against him, whistleblowers Leizel Aileen de Leon and Edwin Roberto, and other unidentified individuals for lack of jurisdiction.
“These cases are dismissed for lack of jurisdiction over the offenses charged, without prejudice to refiling before the Metropolitan Trial Court,” Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 219 Judge Janet Abergos-Samar said in a resolution dated Aug. 5.
Samar said that since the amounts which PhilHealth was allegedly defrauded only ranged from P5,200 to P39,000, the maximum imposable penalty for estafa under the Revised Penal Code is a jail time of two months and one day to six months while for falsification of public or official documents by a private individual carries a maximum penalty of two years, four months, and one day to six years imprisonment.
She explained the case should be handled by the metropolitan trial court since the maximum imposable penalty is only six years.
Under the law, only the maximum imposable penalty of the most serious offense alleged in a complex crime is considered in determining the jurisdiction of the court.
Samar clarified that the criminal charges are not being dismissed because the accused are innocent.
“The court emphasizes that the dismissal of these cases has nothing to do with the guilt or innocence of the accused. The cases are dismissed because based on the crime charged in the information, and the applicable penalty, it is not the Regional Trial Court which has jurisdiction to hear and decide the cases, but the first level courts or the Metropolitan Trial Courts. The accused may still be prosecuted, and the cases may still be filed, before the said courts notwithstanding the dismissal decreed herein,” she said. (Chito Chavez)
