Padaca ‘eager’ to air side on trial over graft, malversation raps

Elections Commissioner Grace Padaca

MANILA, Philippines—Elections commissioner Grace Padaca said she is “eager” to have her side heard in trial for her graft and malversation charges before the Sandiganbayan despite the junking of her motion for immunity from charges.

“Despite the pendency of any petition we may file in the Supreme Court, I have asked my lawyers to continue preparing/presenting my evidence before the Sandiganbayan and unless the Supreme Court rules otherwise, I am eager to have my side heard in trial,” Padaca said on her Facebook account Wednesday.

The former Isabela governor made the statement after the anti-graft court junked her motion for reconsideration that argued she is immune from criminal prosecution because she was a presidential appointee.

Sandiganbayan said it could not grant Padaca’s motion because that would undermine the court’s independence and judicial authority and would violate separation of powers.

“This is not a challenge as to the independence of any branch of government, but this is a fundamental issue which appears to be unresolved and is still unclear, that is why we feel that the matter should be threshed out fully,” Padaca said.

Padaca was appointed in the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in October 2012 even as she was facing charges she argued were filed by her political opponents when she was Isabela governor under the Liberal Party (LP).  LP chairman and President Benigno Aquino III paid for her bail after he had appointed Padaca.

The court forfeited the P70,000 bail that the President had paid when Padaca failed to appear in court, prompting the Sandiganbayan to issue a warrant of arrest against her and order the forfeiture of the bail paid by Aquino. Padaca has since paid for her own bail from arrest.

Padaca appealed for a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court but it has yet to issue one.

Padaca, a Ramon Magsaysay awardee for government service, has been charged with graft for awarding to a nongovernment organization in 2006 a contract to manage a P25-million credit facility for rice farmers, without public bidding, when she was governor. In her defense, she said the bidding was not required for the project and that the government was not damaged by the deal.

Her co-accused were the provincial legal officer Johnas Lamonera, municipal councilor Servando Soriano and Dionisio Pine, manager of the Economic Development for Western Isabela and Northern Luzon Foundation Inc. (EDWINLFI).

The Office of the Ombudsman said that Padaca allowed EDWINDLFI to act as the middle man in disbursing the loan to farmers, but the non-government organization failed to liquidate P3.6 million, and that a total of P18 million of the loan was listed under loan receivables.

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