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According to local reports, Tan entered a guilty plea during his arraignment at the Sandiganbayan 6th Division last Thursday, April 12, for five counts of violation of Section 8 of Republic Act No. 6713, also known as the “Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees”. He was ordered to pay a P25,000 fine.
In October 2016, the Ombudsman ordered his suspension along with and his children Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan II and Maimbung Mayor Samier Abubakar Tan for alleged improper declaration of their SALNs. That time, the older Tan was not in office anymore after he ran for vice governor under the Liberal Party (LP) in 2016 but lost.
Tan, who was elected as Sulu Governor from 1996 to 2001 and 2007 to 2013 (and as vice governor from 2013 to 2016), was suspended for 6 months and was ordered to pay the fine equivalent to his 6 months’ salary. In June 2017, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales ordered that he and his son Samier Tan be charged for violating RA 6713.
Meanwhile, CJ Sereno belittled Sandiganbayan’s conviction of Abdusakur Tan. In an ambush interview with reporters on Sunday after attending a mass, the embattled chief justice repeatedly said that she is innocent in the allegations that she did not file her SALN for 17 years when she was still a professor at the University of the Philippines.
“For the nth time, it is not true that I did not file my SALN for those years. The case of the former Sulu governor is very much different from mine, so I am very sure that I can prove my innocence. And for the record, he (Tan) belongs to the Opposition and we all know that this administration is targeting them.” CJ Sereno said, and left immediately.
Contributed by Renato Pasayao
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