Top gov’t execs slam Sandigan decision

MANILA, Philippines—Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Monday the Sandiganbayan’s approval of the plea bargain between former Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia and former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez was a “disappointing development.”

“It’s a disappointing development because there were many substantive points and arguments that were raised by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) in asking for the revocation of the plea bargain agreement,” De Lima told reporters at the Villamor air base in Pasay City where she and other officials welcomed President Benigno Aquino III from Jakarta.

Saying the state cannot be bound by the “incompetence of its agents,” Sen. Franklin Drilon urged the Aquino administration to appeal the “totally erroneous” Sandiganbayan ruling.

Drilon said the OSG or the new Ombudsman could file a motion for reconsideration, or later elevate the case to the Supreme Court, by pointing out the “incompetence” of the prosecutors who handled the case.

He said this argument would be enough to trump any claim by Garcia that reviving the plunder case against him would be tantamount to double jeopardy.

“The principle in law is that … the state cannot be bound by the competence of its agents. The government should not be prejudiced by the incompetence of the special prosecutors in failing to oppose the arraignment for a lesser offense of [Maj.] Gen. Carlos Garcia,” Drilon said at a press conference in the Senate.

Double jeopardy

Drilon said Garcia could not claim double jeopardy because the dismissal of the plunder case is based on an illegal document that was illegally entered into.

De Lima couldn’t help but note that the Sandigan order came as Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez had resigned from office—only four days ago.

Asked whether Gutierrez then had the last laugh on the issue, De Lima said: “Well, all is not lost because there are remedies under the law. The OSG can always elevate the matter either to the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court.”

Highly questionable

Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., chair of the justice committee in the House of Representatives, described as “highly questionable” the approval of the plea bargain.

Tupas Jr. said his committee had recommended the withdrawal of the deal by the Office of the Ombudsman because the panel found it highly irregular.

The deal was one of the reasons cited for the impeachment of Gutierrez by the House.

“It is clear that based on the hearings of the committee on justice, the Garcia plea bargaining agreement is highly irregular. For the Sandiganbayan to approve the Garcia deal is a highly questionable action,” Tupas said.

Upset

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño said the anticorruption campaign advocates in the House were upset by the Sandiganbayan decision and urged the OSG and the Department of Justice to exert all efforts to reverse the ruling.

“We are disappointed but not entirely surprised by the Sandiganbayan ruling,” Casiño said. “This is a setback in our efforts to correct the deliberate weakening of the case against Garcia.”

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada blamed former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo for filing a “weak” plunder case against Garcia.

He said Marcelo based the case on the affidavit of Garcia’s wife that was executed before US Department of Homeland Security officials. Estrada said the affidavit was executed without the presence of a lawyer and ‘was not sworn to.”

“This is bad news for the Filipino people. I, for one, feel that we were short-changed in this plea bargaining agreement,” Estrada said.

Serious blow

Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said the decision was “lamentable” and was a “serious blow” to the administration’s anti-graft efforts.

“The Aquino government must appeal the case in the Supreme Court to prevent this travesty of justice. To abet this plea bargain agreement is to condone corruption in high office,” Pangilinan said.

“The entire machinery of the government must be mobilized to oppose this unconscionable agreement. We might as well wave the flag of surrender if we allow this stinking deal to push through,” he added.

Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero said the Sandiganbayan should not have approved the deal.

“I don’t think the plea bargain should have been approved. I believe [Maj.] Gen. Garcia together with Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot both belong in jail for raping the military and the people’s coffers,” Escudero said.

“I am one with the 83 percent of Filipinos who said in the Pulse Asia survey that they should be tried for their crimes. I expect the Solicitor General to appeal the denial of his intervention as well as the ruling,” he added.

Fire prosecutors

Drilon said the actions of the special prosecutors in the case should be reviewed and they should be fired from their jobs.

“The $64 question is why did they not want to withdraw the plea bargaining agreement before its approval. Why did the prosecutors insist on this given the overwhelming public opinion and the legal precedents which meditated against the execution of this plea bargain agreement,” Drilon said.

He said the Sandiganbayan ruling did not vindicate the claim of Gutierrez and her prosecutors that the government should enter into a plea bargain because its case was weak.

“These prosecutors should resign. This is not a vindication. It is their incompetence which has resulted in all of these,” Drilon said.

He said while the prosecutors promised the Senate that they would ask the Sandiganbayan to hold in abeyance its ruling, he had received no indication that they filed an actual motion before the anti-graft court.

“At that point, they were already in a very tight situation and they were saying just about anything. I knew then that they were fooling us. I knew they had no more remedies available to them because they signed the plea bargain agreement,” Drilon said.

“They did not oppose the plea for a lesser offense. They did not oppose the bail. So in effect, the plea bargaining was being executed and their failure to timely object to the execution prior to the approval shows the gross incompetence of the prosecutors. They should resign from their posts, given what has transpired,” he added.