MANILA — Sandiganbayan on Tuesday acquitted former Caloocan City mayor Enrico "Recom" Echiverri of the graft and falsification of documents charges against him, as government prosecutors failed to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Other former Caloocan officials—Edna Centeno, Jesusa Garcia, Russel Ramirez and Evelina Garma—were likewise acquitted by the court.

The officials were charged by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2018 for the purchase of life insurance for barangay officials and barangay tanods, supposedly without public bidding.

• Ex-Caloocan mayor Echiverri ordered arrested, posts bail

“Life insurance cannot be considered to be a highly specialized type of product where only a few suppliers are known to be available. The resort to limited source bidding was not justified,” the prosecution said in an earlier manifestation they submitted to the court.

The cases stemmed from the appropriated amount of P14 million under the Annual Investment Plan and the Maintenance of Peace and Order Program of the City of Caloocan in 2013.

During trial, Echiverri’s camp stressed that there was no manifest partiality, evident bad faith nor gross inexcusable negligence on their part because there was no dishonest or fraudulent purpose nor ill-will.

“When they signed the subject documents, there was already a prior procedure done by the requesting department, which are also presumed to have been regularly done,” the defense said in a manifestation during trial.

With the acquittal of the accused, the court ordered that the hold departure orders against them be lifted.

Echiverri, who is under treatment at the Makati Medical Center, attended the promulgation of the decision via video conferencing while the rest were physically present inside the courtroom.

As of writing, the anti-graft court has yet to upload a copy of the decision to the Sandiganbayan website. Only the dispositive portion of the decision was read during the promulgation.