Antigraft court orders trial of N. Cotabato governor to proceed

THE SANDIGANBAYAN antigraft court has ordered North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Mendoza to stand trial for a questionable procurement contract, throwing out her appeal to dismiss the case for lack of merit.

The Office of the Ombudsman indicted Mendoza for the alleged unlawful purchase in 2010 of P2.4 million worth of diesel fuel from a gasoline station owned by her mother.

In a ruling dated June 22, the antigraft court’s First Division said Mendoza erred when she filed a motion for judicial determination of probable cause when she asked the court to overturn a decision on the second week of May to proceed with the trial.

“The motion lacks merit,” the court said. “It is only when the evidence on hand absolutely fails to support a finding of probable cause that the court can dismiss the case…

Such is not the case here.”

The court stressed it had already found cause to try Mendoza on three counts for violation of Republic Act No. 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

“(Mendoza) has not advanced any ground or argument sufficient to warrant a reconsideration of the court’s previous ruling,” it said.

It said an arrest warrant was moot since Mendoza had posted bail of P90,000 for her provisional  freedom.

The Ombudsman found that Mendoza violated the law when she approved the purchase of 49,526.72 liters of diesel worth P2.4 million without a public bidding.

The fuel, for a road grader and four dump trucks during a two-day road rehabilitation project in Magpet town in 2010, was purchased from the Talino Shell station owned by Mendoza’s mother.

Mendoza argued that she did not break the antigraft law because no preferential treatment was given to her mother’s gasoline station. Neither did the provincial government sustain any damage from the direct purchase, she said./rga