Sandigan denies ex-PCSO head’s bid for bail, house arrest

The Sandiganbayan has denied bail and house arrest for detained former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) general manager Rosario Uriarte while she is being tried for plunder for the alleged misuse of P366 million in PCSO funds during the Arroyo administration.

The antigraft court’s First Division said the Supreme Court’s August 2015 decision that allowed former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile to post bail mainly on humanitarian grounds pending his plunder trial for the pork barrel scam did not apply in Uriarte’s case.

The court also ruled that it was “premature” for Uriarte to invoke the Supreme Court’s July 2016 ruling that absolved Uriarte’s two coaccused including former President now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, since the decision is still on appeal.

Uriarte returned to the country last November to face her plunder case and was ordered detained at the National Bureau of Investigation office in Manila.

She immediately asked the Sandiganbayan to allow her to post bail or to be confined in her home in Quezon City due to her health needs, revealing she needed to undergo chemotherapy and other treatments for breast cancer at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City.

But in a decision dated Feb. 20 but released only  on Wednesday, the Sandiganbayan said that, unlike Enrile, the fact that Uriarte turned herself in after four years since the warrant for her arrest was issued “negates her contention that she is not a flight risk.”