Businessman Cedric Lee (in green Barong) appears before the Sandiganbayan for his motion to dismiss his malversation and graft cases. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Businessman Cedric Lee appeared before the Sandiganbayan on Friday, his lawyer claiming that he was denied due process when he was investigated for graft and malversation over a failed Bataan public market project.
During the antigraft court’s hearing on Lee’s motion for judicial determination of probable cause and for dismissal of his case, Lee’s lawyer Jay Ricardo Moreño said the Ombudsman’s information against his client did not include a supplemental agreement for the project between Lee’s Izumo Contractors and his co-accused former Mariveles mayor Angel Peliglorio Jr.
Dressed in a green polo shirt, Lee was seen in the courtroom chatting with accused pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, who would have her bail hearing from plunder that day over her alleged involvement in the scheme of pilfering lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Funds to ghost projects for kickbacks. Both Lee and Napoles had dealings with the government.
Lee’s lawyer Moreño said a reopening of the Ombudsman’s investigation may be an opportunity to include the said supplemental agreement.
But Third Division chair Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang asked the defense why they didn’t include the said document in their motion for reconsideration before the Ombudsman which had been denied.
Moreño said the panel did not have the document at that time. When Associate Justice Samuel Martires asked why they didn’t get it from the co-accused Peliglorio, Moreño said they could not get documents from the former mayor because the latter’s defense contradict that of Lee’s.
The prosecuting panel told the court that it cannot dismiss the case because it would deprive the state its right to due process.
The court submitted the motion for resolution.
Lee has asked the court to dismiss the case against him and withhold the arrest warrant, claiming that he was only a victim of a political catfight because the incumbent mayor Jesse Concepcion refused to implement his political rival Peliglorio’s project.
READ: Cedric Lee blames fight between political rivals for graft case
Lee has also accused Malacañang of having a hand in the charges as he faces a tax evasion case before the Department of Justice.
He is charged with malversation and graft for allegedly conniving with former Mariveles mayor Peliglorio for the release of P23.47 million bank loan proceeds to Lee’s company Izumo Contractors Corp. on March 27, 2005 even without procedural safeguards, guarantee of performance, and in violation of audit rules.
READ: Cedric Lee faces graft, malversation suit over Bataan public market deal
The Ombudsman said Peliglorio authorized the release of the bank loans to Lee for the construction of a public market that did not commence.
This as the Department of Justice is hearing a tax evasion case filed against him by the Bureau of Internal Revenue for the alleged failure of Izumo Contractors to pay P194.47 million in taxes from 2006 to 2009.
Lee also faces serious illegal detention and grave coercion cases with model Deniece Cornejo at the Taguig Regional Trial Court for their alleged role in beating up and extorting money from television host and actor Vhong Navarro. IDL