Friday, December 19, 2008 Former mayor sues nephew for estafa
FORMER Davao City mayor and Local Government secretary Luis T. Santos (LTS) filed eight counts of estafa against his nephew for receiving payments in behalf of the Santos Land Development Corporation without proper authorization from the company's board of directors.
In his affidavit of complaint, he accused Architect Francisco Santos, his nephew, of receiving unauthorized payments amounting to P1.14 million from March 2006 until November of the same year.
Francisco and his wife, Leonida, allegedly received eight cheques as payment to the company despite the lack of authority from the board of directors and the president of the said company. The money was allegedly not remitted by the couple to the company.
The complainant said all of the payments received by his nephew happened when the younger Santos sat as the company chairman. LTS discovered the anomaly after he took over the position.
Santos said he demanded from the couple the return of the P1.14 million to the company in a demand letter dated September 29, 2008 but which the accused has not complied with as of today.
As chairman, Santos had the corporation, which has close to 10 housing projects in Davao City worth billions of pesos, subjected to external audit.
One of the results was the alleged payments made to one of his nephews, Architect Francisco Santos and his wife architect Leonida Santos, to the tune of P1,144,056.48. Francisco was the chairman of the board before Luis Santos, while wife Leonida is now the president.
Recently, the board, over the objection of Luis and two other directors, held an election ousting Luis as chairman and electing Antonio S. Domingo in his stead. (BOT)
