Lawmaker refuses to enter plea

MANILA, Philippines–Former Apec party-list Rep. Edgar Valdez on Monday refused to enter a plea during his arraignment for graft and plunder in the Sandiganbayan in connection with the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

Accompanied by a male nurse and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) personnel, Valdez looked pale at the 8:30 a.m. proceedings in the antigraft court’s Fifth Division.

Valdez, whose party-list group represented electric cooperatives in the House of Representatives, asked the court on Friday to defer his arraignment, but was turned down.

“I refuse to enter a plea upon the advice of my counsel,” Valdez said after a court employee read the charges against him.

Associate Justice Roland Jurado, Fifth Division chair, entered a plea of not guilty for the former lawmaker in accordance with the Rules of Court.

Besides Valdez, also arraigned were suspected pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, who pleaded not guilty, and Budget Undersecretary Mario Relampagos and three of his staff members, who all declined to enter a plea.

Seven other coaccused, among them, former Technology and Resource Center Director General Dennis Cunanan, pleaded not guilty to the seven counts of graft.

Joel Ferrer, Valdez’s lawyer, said his client declined to enter a plea as they were planning to file a motion for certiorari in the Supreme Court questioning Valdez’s indictment for plunder.

He argued that the amount that Valdez allegedly pocketed in kickbacks from his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) was less than the P50-million threshold for plunder cases.

Ferrer said Valdez could not be held liable for plunder since the total PDAF allocations he received from 2007 to 2010 amounted to only P82 million.

Citing the statement of primary whistle-blower Benhur Luy, he said the lawmakers received as much as 50 percent of their pork barrel allotments as their rebates from the PDAF they funneled to Napoles’ bogus foundations.

“Even if you compute (the kickback) at 60 percent, it would still not reach the P50-million threshold so it will not qualify for the crime of plunder,” Ferrer said.

Valdez, who was supposedly known as “Kuryente” in Napoles’ records, is accused of embezzling P57.8 million of his PDAF from 2004 to 2010.