PECHO VS SANDIGANBAYAN

238 SCRA 116

FACTS: Catre and petitioner Pecho, then a Customs Guard of the Bureau of
Customs went to the office of Constantino Calica, a certified public accountant
and a customs broker. They introduced themselves as the duly authorized
representatives of Eversun Commercial Trading and then engaged him, for an
amount equal to fifty percent (50%) of the authorized brokerage fee, to prepare
and file with the Bureau of Customs the necessary Import Entry and Internal
Revenue Declaration covering Eversun's shipment. The petitioner and Catre
submitted to Calica the packing list, the commercial invoice, the bill of lading,
and the sworn import entry declaration. The shipment was declared as
agricultural disc blades and irrigation water pumps. Two days after the
documents were submitted to the Entry Processing Division, Catre requested
Calica to assist him and the petitioner when the cargo will be submitted for
actual examination. Calica agreed. On 29 March 1989, Ruperto Santiago,
Customs Senior Agent, conducted a spot check on the questioned shipment to
verify the contents of the container van. It was discovered that the contents
were automotive diesel engines instead of agricultural disc blades and
irrigation pumps as declared in the import entry and revenue declaration.
Consequently, the petitioner and one Jose Catre were charged in an
information with the violation of Section 3(e) of R.A. No. 3019, as amended.
ISSUE: Would the absence of the third requisite, which, therefore, makes the
petitioner's act only an attempted violation of Section 3(e), subject him to the
same penalty as if he had committed the consummated crime?
HELD: There is no such thing as attempted violation of the Anti-Graft Act. The
attempted, frustrated, and consummated stages only apply to felonies in the
RPC. Under crimes punishable by a special law, you only punish the
comsummated stage. Since there was no damage or injury caused to the
government due to the time discovery, there was no violation of the Anti-Graft.
However, they made false entries, thereby commtting falsification. Thus, they
can be convicted of complex crime of estafa through falsification of public
documents under the RPC.