Sandiganbayan denies Elenita Binay’s plea of demurrer to evidence
Former Makati City Mayor Elenita Binay INQUIRER PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA/FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has denied former Makati Mayor Elenita Binay’s motion for leave to file demurrer to evidence in the graft and malversation cases she faces.
According to Section 23 of the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure, a demurrer to evidence is the power of the court to dismiss the case due to a lack of sufficient evidence from the prosecution after they rest their case.
“The pending motions for leave to file demurrer are all without merit,” the court said in its resolution.
Binay filed the motion on October 26, and the Sandiganbayan’s resolution was promulgated on November 4. The document was recently published on the court’s website.
The former mayor is not the only one facing charges. Other government officials implicated in Binay’s graft case also filed for the demurrer to evidence, which the Sandiganbyan also denied.
“In these cases, the accused failed to specifically state their grounds for their demurrer to evidence. Their claims are general allegations and fail to satisfy the requirement under the rules,” the Sandiganbayan further explained.
Binay faces several graft cases and malversation from anomalies with bed supplies at the Ospital ng Makati, which the Commission discovered through an Audit in 2001. The court has ruled that these cases were to be processed across different trials.
Two of these cases were already dismissed by the Sandiganbayan in 2019 and 2021.
