Ex-CHR exec charged with pocketing employee’s pay wants case junked
Former Human Rights Commissioner Cecilia Rachel Quisumbing has asked the Sandiganbayan to dismiss the charges filed against her for allegedly pocketing an employee’s salary increase.
According to her, the graft, extortion and ethical misconduct case she is facing should be junked because of the much-delayed investigation conducted by the Office of the Ombudsman.
In a three-page motion, Quisumbing said the Ombudsman took almost four years to terminate the preliminary investigation stage. The prosecution should have filed the criminal case against her in the Sandiganbayan in September 2014 after she was sanctioned administratively through dismissal from the service, she added.
As an alternative to the outright dismissal of her case, Quisumbing asked the court’s Second Division to require the Ombudsman to submit a bill of particulars specifying the details of the criminal charges against her.
The prosecution “miserably failed to allege the material facts constituting the offenses” she was charged for, she said.
According to Quisumbing, the information did not even specify the particular dates on which the offense allegedly took place, stating only a period of time.
“The prosecution is duty-bound to be definite as to the date and time when the alleged direct bribery was committed in order to avoid surprises during the trial and to limit the parameters of the presentation of evidence of the prosecution and the accused’s presentation of her evidence,” she said.
Ombudsman records showed that in January 2013, Quisumbing promoted her co-terminus staff Ma. Regina Eugenio from administrative aide VI to senior administrative assistant III “in disregard of the Civil Service Commission’s rules on merit and promotion.”
The prosecution said that from January to July 2013, she pocketed the P41,292 salary differential representing Eugenio’s additional pay, supposedly to place it in an office fund. Eugenio sued her in September 2013, leading to Quisumbing’s suspension for six months.
