PECHO VS SANDIGANBAYAN238 SCRA 116

FACTS: Catre and petitioner Pecho, then a Customs Guard of the Bureau of Customs went to the office of Constantino Calica, a certified public accountant and a customs broker. They introduced themselves as the duly authorized representatives of Eversun Commercial Trading and then engaged him, for an amount equal to fifty percent (50%) of the authorized brokerage fee, to prepare and file with the Bureau of Customs the necessary Import Entry and Internal Revenue Declaration covering Eversun's shipment. The petitioner and Catre submitted to Calica the packing list, the commercial invoice, the bill of lading, and the sworn import entry declaration. The shipment was declared as agricultural disc blades and irrigation water pumps. Two days after the documents were submitted to the Entry Processing Division, Catre requested Calica to assist him and the petitioner when the cargo will be submitted for actual examination. Calica agreed. On 29 March 1989, Ruperto Santiago, Customs Senior Agent, conducted a spot check on the questioned shipment to verify the contents of the container van. It was discovered that the contents were automotive diesel engines instead of agricultural disc blades and irrigation pumps as declared in the import entry and revenue declaration. Consequently, the petitioner and one Jose Catre were charged in an information with the violation of Section 3(e) of R.A. No. 3019, as amended.

ISSUE: Would the absence of the third requisite, which, therefore, makes the petitioner's act only an attempted violation of Section 3(e), subject him to the same penalty as if he had committed the consummated crime?

HELD: There is no such thing as attempted violation of the Anti-Graft Act. The attempted, frustrated, and consummated stages only apply to felonies in the RPC. Under crimes punishable by a special law, you only punish the comsummated stage. Since there was no damage or injury caused to the government due to the time discovery, there was no violation of the Anti-Graft. However, they made false entries, thereby commtting falsification. Thus, they can be convicted of complex crime of estafa through falsification of public documents under the RPC.