No bail for Maslog, who once faked death
The antigraft court won’t let Mary Ann Maslog get away this time.
The Sandiganbayan has rejected for the second time the bail petition of Maslog, one of the accused in the 1998 textbook scam case who last year was found to be alive after she faked her death in the last five years to escape prosecution.
In a resolution on Dec. 19, 2024 but released to the public only this week, the Sandiganbayan Second Division said Maslog’s motion was “bereft of merit” and pointed out that her “history of absconding, failure to voluntarily appear before the court and use of spurious identities prove a high probability of flight.”
Besides, it added, the right to bail is “not absolute,” and granting bail based on her circumstances will “erode public confidence in the judicial system.”
Past conduct
It also said that her past absences in court proceedings, after she was initially granted bail in 2017, already “constitutes a grave violation of her legal obligations” and that such behavior “reveals a calculated pattern of evasion.”
“Her past conduct makes any assurance of her compliance with bail conditions wholly unreliable,” the court added.
Maslog filed another motion for reconsideration on Dec. 12, 2024, six days after the same court turned down her Nov. 25, 2024 “Very Respectful Urgent Motion to Lift Bench Warrant and/or Post bail.” A bench warrant is issued when a respondent fails to appear in court or to comply with court proceedings and orders.
In her pleading, she argued that any concerns on her being a flight risk “can be addressed by imposing stricter bail conditions.”
Maslog was among the accused, along with Emilia Aranas and Ernesto Guiang of the then Department of Education, Culture and Sports (forerunner of the Department of Education), of graft in 1998 for allegedly faking records to secure payments from the Department of Budget and Management.
Case archived
Esteem Enterprises, the supplier of books and supplementary materials, was represented by Maslog.
Aranas and Guiang were both convicted and sentenced to a maximum of prison term of 10 years by the Sandiganbayan in 2020. Maslog’s case, on the other hand, was archived as she was reported to have died on Nov. 18 of the same year.
But in September last year, Maslog seemed to have risen from the dead when National Bureau of Investigation agents tracked her down in Quezon City, leading to her arrest.
Maslog, however, was being pursued by authorities for another suspected scam—an investment scheme where she was alleged to have defrauded people of millions of pesos while using another identity.
‘Dr. Francisco’
Going by the alias “Dr. Jesica Sese Francisco,” Maslog was reported to have befriended one of the complainants, encouraging her to invest in a water system and medical supply project in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. But the checks that Maslog issued to the complainants turned out to be fake.
The NBI also later discovered that Maslog was also the subject of two separate outstanding warrants of arrest in the regional trial courts in the cities of Makati and Parañaque under the name “Mary Ann Evans Smith” and “Mary Ann Tupa-Maslog Smith.”
All of their biometrics matched with Maslog’s information that she provided in her NBI clearance in 2016.
