The Makati Metropolitan Trial Court has acquitted from perjury charges the former board member of the Public Estates Authority (PEA) who earlier blew the whistle about the alleged overpricing of the construction contract of the 5.1-kilometer President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard (PDMB) in Pasay City, one of the reported graft-ridden government deals approved by the Arroyo Administration.

Judge Ronald Moreno of the Makati MTC Branch 64 has acquitted Sulficio Tagud, Jr. from the perjury charges filed against him by State Prosecutors in 2003 for allegedly giving false testimony under oath when he executed a notarized counter-affidavit in response to an administrative complaint filed against him before the Office of the Ombudsman.

The perjury case stemmed from Tagud’s claim that he had no knowledge of the decision of the PEA board to approve the P42-million collective price adjustments for the contract awarded by the government to the Jesusito D. Legaspi Construction (JDLC) firm for the building of the controversial highway formerly called the Central Boulevard.

In the disputed counter-affidavit dated November 21, 2002, Tagud said he was not present during the PEA Board meeting on November 6, 2001, when the new Board Members unanimously approved the contract price adjustment for the PDMB project.

But State Prosecutors belied his statements through the meeting’s attendance sheet and per diem disbursements that Tagum had signed.

Tagum clarified, saying “while it is true that I signed the attendance sheets during the board meeting, I left early and was not able to stay for the whole duration of the said meeting. Thus, I was no longer at the meeting when the subject price adjustment was being discussed.”

Moreno credited Tagum’s claims, saying good faith or lack of malice is a valid defense vis-à-vis the allegation of deliberate assertion of falsehood in perjury cases.

“The accused proved his defense of good faith when he continuously challenged the authority of the PEA board and management to approve the P42-million price adjustment,” Moreno said in his decision dated May 29, 2009.

The judge was referring to reports that Tagud, together with civil society groups and government watch dogs, had filed administrative case against members of the PEA Board and Management for approving the price adjustments in favor of the JDLC. The group even filed a supplemental complaint naming Winston Garcia, chairman of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), and Presidential Adviser Avelino Cruz as additional respondents.

Tagud said the PEA resolution caused the overpricing of the PDMB project by over P600-million and had cost the government a whopping P1.1 billion loan for a highway construction project alone.

The controversy earned for the PDMB the title “most expensive boulevard in the world,” prompting the Senate to launch a legislative inquiry on the scam hounding the eight-lane highway that runs parallel to Roxas Boulevard, starting at Buendia Avenue in the north and ending at the Pacific Avenue in AsiaWorld farther south.