Dennis Cunanan INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Describing Dennis Cunanan as a flight risk, the Sandiganbayan has denied the request to travel abroad this month of the former Technology Resource Center (TRC) official who is among those accused in the pork barrel scam.
“Considering the opposition of the prosecution that accused is a flight risk, and there are cases pending before the court, the motion (for leave to travel) is hereby denied,” Associate Justice Roland Jurado announced during a hearing on Friday of the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division.
Cunanan’s request said he had to be in Japan from July 7 to 15, and in the US from July 20 to August 3, to fulfill his duties as secretary general of the Junior Chamber International (JCI), a job that he claimed was his only source of income these days.
The TRC official was not present during the hearing but his lawyers said they will appeal the decision.
Unless reversed, the ruling of the Fifth Division rendered moot Cunanan’s similar motions for leave to travel before the Sandiganbayan’s First and Third Divisions.
Cunanan faces seven counts of graft for his alleged participation in diverting hundreds of millions of pesos in Priority Development and Assistance Fund (PDAF) into kickbacks. He has four cases before the Sandiganbayan First Division as a co-accused of Sen. Bong Revilla; two cases before the Third Division as Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s co-accused, and one count before the Fifth Division as Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s co-accused.
Cunanan, who pleaded not guilty to two counts of graft before the Third Division, paid the full bail of P210,000 for all seven counts of graft.
He was allowed to be conditionally arraigned last Wednesday while the court deliberated on his request to travel.
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