No arrests yet after cases vs 38 indictees raffled off

Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla and Juan Ponce Enrile.   LEO M. SABANGAN II

The Sandiganbayan on Friday assigned three of its divisions to handle the pork barrel scam cases against Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and 35 others, signaling the start of the wait on when, or whether, the antigraft court will order their arrest.

A court official said it was unlikely that any arrest warrants would be issued soon as the assigned justices can be expected to take at least 10 days to evaluate the numerous case documents and determine whether there was probable cause to place the respondents on trial.

Issue of new divisions

Despite the raffling off of the pork barrel cases to the regular divisions of the Sandiganbayan, the Supreme Court will still decide on a request from the Ombudsman for it to create new divisions to handle the cases.

“The raffle is without prejudice to any action the Supreme Court may take on the request,” the high court’s spokesperson Theodore Te, said in a text message to reporters.

Te earlier said that the high court has directed all the parties, including the respondents, the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the Sandiganbayan to comment on Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales’ request within a period of three days, from last Wednesday.

Morales earlier asked the high court to create at least two special divisions in the Sandiganbayan to handle the pork barrel cases, citing their “national magnitude, the complexities of the issues involved, the number of accused and the far-reaching consequences of these cases.”

According to Morales, the high court is empowered to “promulgate rules concerning pleading, practice and procedure in all courts,” under Section 5, Article VIII of the Constitution.

She also pointed out that the Sandiganbayan’s internal rules also allows the creation of a special division “where compelling reasons and the interest of justice so require.”

Te explained that should the high tribunal grant Morales’ request, the pork barrel cases would then be pulled out from the Sandiganbayan regular divisions where they have been assigned and transferred to the special ones to be created.

Which case goes where

After the court decided to consolidate the various counts of plunder and graft into three groups per senator, Enrile’s case was raffled off to the 3rd Division headed by Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang; Estrada’s case to the 5th Division headed by Associate Justice Rolando Jurado; while Revilla’s case was raffled off to the 1st Division headed by Associate Justice Efren de la Cruz.

The other members of the 3rd Division are Associate Justices Samuel Martires and Alex Quiroz, while the 5th Division counts only Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo as a member as the third seat is still vacant.

The 1st Division has Associate Justices Rodolfo Ponferrada and Rafael Lagos for members.

Ong inhibits

Cabotaje Tang and five other justices from four of the Sandiganbayan’s five divisions showed up for the manual raffle of the cases as 4th Division chair Associate Justice Gregory Ong inhibited himself because of his alleged association with the principal accused, the alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.

Cabotaje-Tang declined to answer questions from the media on Morales’ petition for the high court to create two special divisions to exclusively try the pork barrel scam cases.

She said the justices would formally reply to the Supreme Court later on Friday or on Monday.

The crime

Enrile faces one count of plunder and 15 counts of graft; Estrada one count of plunder and 11 counts of graft; and Revilla one count of plunder and 16 counts of graft.

Napoles, who is alleged to have created the bogus nongovernment organizations that were used as vehicles to siphon off huge kickbacks for lawmakers from the lawmakers’ own pork barrel entitlements under the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), is a coaccused along with her aide, John Raymond de Asis, in all the plunder and graft cases against the three senators.

Napoles’ nephew, John Ronald Lim, is also a coaccused in the plunder cases against Enrile and Revilla.

At least 10 days to evaluate

“Under the Rules of Court, the justices are given 10 days to study the case. But in cases like this which we know to be complicated and has voluminous documentary evidence, the justices may take more than 10 days,” said Renato Bocar, the Sandiganbayan executive clerk of court.

“In which case, they will only issue warrants of arrest after they have evaluated whether there is probable cause (to try the accused),” Bocar added.

Any arrest warrants will be served by the Philippine National Police (PNP) or the National Bureau of Investigation.

35 others

Enrile’s coaccused in the plunder cases against him is his former aide, Jessica “Gigi” Reyes. Estrada’s coaccused is his aide Pauline Labayen while Revilla’s coaccused is his aide Richard Cambe.

Aside from the three senators, 35 others, including Budget Undersecretary Mario Relampagos, five former representatives, government executives and staff members were also charged with graft.

The former lawmakers are former Rep. and now Masbate Gov. Rizalina Seachon-Lanete; former Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives (Apec) party-list representative Edgar Valdez; former Benguet Rep. Samuel Dangwa; former Agusan del Sur Rep. Rodolfo Plaza; and former Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Constantino Jaraula.

Also included in the case are officials of the state-owned Technology Resource Center (TRC), National Livelihood Development Corp. (NLDC) and the National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor), which were allegedly used as pork barrel conduits for ghost projects of Napoles’ bogus NGOs.

These include former TRC director general Antonio Ortiz and his successor, Dennis Cunanan, NLDC president Gondelina Amata and former Nabcor president.

Special division for Joseph Estrada

A special division was last created in the Sandiganbayan in January 2002 to try ousted President Joseph Estrada for plunder. Estrada was convicted in September 2007 and sentenced to reclusion perpetua. He was immediately pardoned by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and never got to serve out his sentence.

The filing of the third batch of cases against former and current lawmakers and others involved in the congressional pork barrel scam did not push through yesterday, as earlier announced.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said in a text message that the filing of the complaints would not happen on Friday but did not elaborate.

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