Sandiganbayan dismisses petition to merge Neri, Abalos cases

Romulo Neri AND Benjamin Abalos

The Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division has rejected a call that a consolidated trial be held for former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director general Romulo Neri and former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos regarding their alleged part in the controversy-ridden $329-million contract between the government and Chinese firm ZTE Corp. involving a national broadband network project.

In its Oct. 19 resolution, the antigraft court’s Fourth Division said a consolidated trial would be unfair to both Neri and Abalos, who were being tried separately by two different divisions of the court.

Agreed on joint trial

Neri’s case is pending before the court’s Fifth Division while the graft case against Abalos is lodged with the Fourth Division.

The court agreed with Neri’s assertion that a joint trial of his case with that of Abalos would be an “abomination” and prejudicial to his rights.

Neri had already testified as a material witness of the government against Abalos. He said that a consolidated trial would only cause confusion and disruption of proceedings.

After hearing Neri’s testimony and observing his demeanor in court during direct and cross–examination, the court said that members of the division “had already formed their respective individual opinions on the matter of his credibility.”

“This Court would not want accused Neri to entertain any doubt in his mind that such formed opinions might impact on the proper disposition of the Neri case,” it said.

Delay on the case

The court said only  six witnesses had been presented in the Neri case while prosecutors in the Abalos trial had 16 on the witness stand.

This, it said, showed that the Abalos case was so far advanced compared to the Neri case in terms of proceedings.

“If the Neri case were to be consolidated with the Abalos case, this would necessarily entail delay,” the court added.

Abalos is accused of offering a P200-million bribe to Neri, who was NEDA director-general at the time the deal was approved.