Former Lanao del Norte Representative Abdullah Dimaporo INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
The Sandiganbayan on Friday allowed former Lanao del Norte Representative Abdullah Dimaporo to post bail over malversation charges in connection with the P728-million fertilizer fund scam in 2004.
READ: Dimaporo arrested by NBI in hospital
The antigraft court’s special second division allowed Dimaporo to go on provisional liberty by granting his urgent motion for bail in conformity with the Supreme Court’s ruling last Dec. 8, 2015 on the case of former Bacolod City Mayor Luzviminda Valdez.
The said decision of the high court declared that “an accused charged with the complex crime of malversation through falsification of public documents that involves an amount in excess of P22,000 is entitled to bail as a matter of right, and a summary hearing on bail application is, therefore, unnecessary.”
READ: Dimaporo seeks bail
“On the argument that the said decision is an official act of the judicial department which this court is mandated to take judicial notice of without need for the introduction of evidence, the accused submits that thus court, irrespective of any and all other proceedings heretofore undertaken and/or of rulings made relative to the issue of bail, is now left with no other recourse but to apply the Valdez ruling, and should grant him bail forthwith pursuant to the latest Bailbond Guide and in accordance with the aforementioned Supreme Court decision,” said chairperson Teresita Diaz-Baldoz, who penned the ruling.
READ: Dimaporo asks Sandigan to reverse ruling denying him bail
“Accordingly, accused-movant Abdullah D. Dimaporo is hereby allowed to go on provisional liberty under a bailbond which is hereby set in the amount of P200,000,” Diaz-Baldoz added.
Dimaporo first sought bail from the Sandiganbayan for malversation in 2013, however, the court denied his request in March 2015.
READ: Sandigan denies Dimaporo bail plea
Dimaporo was accused of diverting P5 million in public funds to his Lanao Foundation Inc. and making it appear that 10,000 bags of Saka Organic fertilizers were distributed to the Department of Agriculture’s farm input and farm implement program. No such program was implemented according to the Ombudsman.
Dimaporo’s alleged bogus fertilizer transaction was said to be part of several projects under the multi-million fertilizer fund scam orchestrated by Agriculture Undersecretary Joc-Joc Bolante as part of the scheme to divert public funds to the 2004 campaign kitty of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. RAM