Gov seeks delay in graft indictment
By Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:40:00 03/27/2008
MANILA, Philippines – Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes has asked the Sandiganbayan to defer his arraignment today on a graft charge filed against him for alleged violations of the small-scale mining law.
Citing procedural flaws in his indictment, Reyes also urged the antigraft court’s First Division to order a new preliminary investigation of the case by the Office of the Ombudsman.
Reyes and a provincial mining executive, Andronico Baguyo, were accused of allowing two small-scale mining firms to extract mineral ore twice the volume approved in its two-year permit.
The graft charges stemmed from a complaint filed by Fernando Santos before the Ombudsman on behalf of the environmental group Katipunan Para sa Kalikasan in August 2006.
The two were being made liable for extending for two years beginning April 2006 the mining permit of the Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC) and Olympic Mines and Development Corp. (OMDC) despite violations of the provisions of the permit.
Their graft charge involving OMDC has been raffled off to Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division.
As for the case with the First Division, records showed that PGMC shipped for two years 282,729 metric tons of ore valued at roughly P545 million which substantially exceeded the limit of 50,000 metric tons per year specified in its permit.
The officials also allegedly consented to the firm’s use of heavy equipment in its operations although the permit specified only manual labor would be used.
In asking the Sandiganbayan to defer his arraignment, the governor, through his lawyers, Arturo and Ferdinand Topacio, said there were “patent irregularities” in the preliminary investigation conducted by the Office of the Ombudsman.
His lawyers pointed out that the antigraft body based its preliminary investigation, which “fathered the information” against him, on statements and pictures that they said attempted to show mining over-extraction.
“Nothing therein could be overstretched to accommodate the imaginary allegation that the accused-movant renewed the [small-scale mining permit] of the Platinum Group despite some violations,” they said.
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