THE SANDIGANBAYAN has thrown out the felony case filed against Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano after she ordered the closure of the session hall in August 2010, prompting the vice mayor and councilors to hold their meeting on the stairs of city hall.
Acting swiftly, the antigraft court’s First Division dismissed for lack of probable cause the charge of violating Article 143 of the Marcosera edict Revised Penal Code against Cayetano and city administrator Jose Luis Montales less than five months after the Office of the Ombudsman approved their indictment.
The law prohibits anybody from preventing the meeting of Congress, constitutional commissions, provincial boards and town councils “by force or fraud.”
The case against Cayetano, wife of vice presidential contender Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, and Montales was filed by Vice Mayor George Elias and the 17member city council.
Elias and the councilors, who then belonged to a different political party, had accused Cayetano and Montales of unlawfully preventing them from holding their regular session after they padlocked the session hall on Aug. 16, 2010.
The court, however, said the Ombudsman failed to prove that the pair blocked the councilors from holding their session using “fraud or force.”
“Upon a close examination of the evidence adduced… the court is of the opinion that the evidence on record fail to establish a probable cause…,” the court said in its 15-page resolution promulgated on Dec. 11.
“The court is not convinced that the accused committed deception or made misrepresentation to the complainants when a new (and temporary) session hall was designated for (them) to use,” it argued, adding:
“All told, the court does not see the need to further subject the accused to the expense, rigors and embarrassment of a fullblown trial….”
The resolution was written by Associate Justice Efren dela Cruz, chair of the First Division, and was concurred in by Associate Justices Rodolfo Ponferrada and Rafael Lagos.
In dismissing the case against Cayetano and Montales, the court said it would save the government from “the needless waste of resources, time and effort just to discern that the prosecution’s evidence cannot secure a conviction.”
With its decision, the court also dumped the mayor’s petition for the Ombudsman to conduct a reinvestigation of the complaint against her.
The Inquirer tried to reach Cayetano for comment but was told that she has yet to release a statement.
The city’s Public Information Office chief, Lito Laparan, however, confirmed that she has already been informed of the dismissal of the case against her.
In a previous interview, the mayor had expressed confidence that the case would not prosper, saying the city council was never prevented from holding sessions.
She had earlier explained that the closure of the session hall was necessary to give way to the reorganization of city hall at that time. With Mark Anthony Toldo