THE Court of Appeals (CA) has finally junked the criminal complaint against 14 officers of the National Press Club (NPC) arising from the controversial sale of the Vicente Manansala mural painting on the NPC building in Intramuros, Manila.

In a two-page Resolution of the CA Former 13th Division, penned by Associate Justice Priscilla Baltazar-Padilla, it denied the motion for reconsideration filed by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) against NPC officials.

It ruled that the court maintains its earlier ruling last October 7, 2011 since there are no new arguments presented which would warrant the reversal of their earlier decision.

“An assiduous evaluation of the said motion for reconsideration led us to conclude that there exists no compelling and justifiable reason for us to veer away from our earlier pronouncement.

The arguments presented by petitioner had already been traversed and ruled upon by us. There is no need to belabor the issues one more time,” it avers.

“Wherefore, on account of the foregoing, we deny the said motion for reconsideration.”
Aside from Justice Padilla, other magistrates who concurred in the ruling were Justices Fernanda Lampas-Peralta and Agnes Reyes-Carpio.

The appeals court stressed that former Justice Secretary Alberto Agra was correct when he issued a resolution on June 11, 2010 withdrawing his earlier resolution which ordered the indictment of the journalists before the trial court for the supposed “theft and illegal sale” of the painting.

NPC officials Roy Mabasa, Benny Antiporda, Louie Logarta, Amor Virata, Jun Cobarrubias, Jerry Yap, Alvin Feliciano, Joey Venancio, William Depasupil, Dennis Fetalino, Joel Sy Egco, Conrado Generoso, Rolly Gonzalo, and Samuel Julian were cleared of any criminal liability.

The petition for review filed by the GSIS claiming ownership of the mural was denied by the CA.

In 2010, Agra held there was no probable cause to indict the 14 officers for violation of Article 308 in relation to Article 310 of the Revised Penal Code (qualified theft).

Agra also ruled that the mural’s buyer—Lourdes B. Alcantara—did not violate Presidential Decree 1612 or the Anti-Fencing Law.

The CA also considered a Regional Trial Court of Pasay City decision which declared that it is the NPC that owned the Manansala painting at the time that it was removed from the wood-framed wall press club building in January 2007.

Agra reversed his findings due to the new evidence presented by the NPC officials.
It will be recalled that the GSIS filed its complaint against NPC officials when it discovered that the painting was sold in the amount of than P10 million.

The complaint alleged that the NPC officers were liable for qualified theft for its failure to inform them prior to the selling.