Sandigan orders arrest of ex-PNP chief Purisima

Resigned PNP chief Alan Purisima INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

Sacked Philippine National Police Director General Alan Purisima and 10 others, including businesswoman Salud Bautista, have been ordered arrested by the Sandiganbayan over a questionable P100-million contract awarded to a startup.

In an order dated May 18, which it released on Thursday, the antigraft court’s Sixth Division issued the arrest warrant for Purisima and the others after it found probable cause to proceed with their trial for graft.

Purisima, one of President Aquino’s closest personal friends, and his coaccused were indicted for violation of Republic Act No. 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, involving the contract for the delivery of gun licenses nationwide that the PNP granted to the startup, Werfast Documentation Agency Inc.

The Office of the Ombudsman said the contract was given to Werfast without competitive  public bidding and despite the company’s lack of track record as a courier.

Probable cause

“After judicious scrutiny and evaluation of the information and resolution of the prosecutor … the court finds that sufficient grounds exist for the finding of a probable cause and for the issuance of a warrant of arrest against all the accused charged,” it said in a three-page order.

It added: “The court has, in fact, independently determined for itself the existence of probable cause as to merit the arrest of the accused, acquire jurisdiction over their persons and to proceed to trial.”

In ordering the arrests, the court threw out the separate motions for judicial determination of probable cause filed by Purisima, Bautista and Werfast owner Mario Juan.

Bautista, an incorporator of Werfast, is also the registered owner of Philippine Remittance Co., which has been implicated in the laundering in the Philippines of $81 million stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh central bank’s account in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February.

The Sandiganbayan said the arguments laid out by the respondents in their petitions were “matters of defense [that] are best raised and threshed out during trial.”

The resolution was signed by Associate Justice Rodolfo Ponferrada, chair of the newly created Sixth Division, and Associate Justices Oscar Herrera and Michael Frederick Musngi.

Besides Purisima, Bautista and Juan, also ordered arrested were retired PNP Directors Gil Meneses and Napoleon Estilles, former Chief Supt. Allan Parreño, Senior Supt. Melchor Reyes and Senior Insp. Ford Tuazon.

Also named in the arrest warrant were Werfast incorporators Enrique Valerio, Lorna Perena and Juliana Pasia.

The court also set the arraignment of Chief Supt. Raul Petrasanta, former Senior Supt. Eduardo Acierto, Supt. Lenbell Fabia and Chief Inspectors Sonia Calixto, Nelson Bautista and Ricardo Zapata Jr. for June 20 after they posted bail of P30,000 each.

Last week, the court issued a hold departure order, prohibiting Purisima and all the others accused from leaving the country.

Nonexistent

In recommending their indictment, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales said Werfast did not have “corporate existence and juridical personality when the PNP engaged its services through a memorandum of agreement” in May 2011.

As shown by its certificate of incorporation, Werfast was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission only on Aug. 10, 2011, three months after it was awarded with the lucrative contract.