Prosecutors oppose JV Ejercito’s bid for separate, early trial

Senator JV Ejercito. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

STATE prosecutors opposed the request of suspended Senator JV Ejercito and other San Juan City officials to hold a separate, early trial of their technical malversation case over the city’s purchase of high-powered firearms using calamity funds.

Ejercito, three incumbent city officials, and six former councilors asked the Sandiganbayan Sixth Division on September 13 to hold their trial apart from that of former Vice-Mayor Francis Javier Zamora and two former councilors.

2 month delay

The senator blamed the over two-month delay of their trial on Zamora’s move to appeal the denial of their motion to quash the charge sheet.

But the Office of the Ombudsman’s Special Prosecutor filed a four-page opposition on Sept. 23, saying Ejercito’s  lawyers earlier agreed to begin the trial in November in order to synchronize the hearings.

The respondents were likewise present during the Sept. 8 hearing, where their lawyers agreed to postpone the trial.

Initial trial dates

“No objection was raised by them when this Honorable Court made the Order in open court setting the initial trial dates on Nov. 22 and 23, 2016. In fact, they were amenable to such trial dates,” the opposition read.

“The general rule is that a client is bound by the acts, even mistakes, of his counsel in the realm of procedural technique,” the opposition read.

The government also denied that Ejercito and his corespondents’ right to speedy trial would be violated by the “mere delay of more than two months.”

Ejercito and three incumbent San Juan City officials—councilors Leonardo Celles and Vincent Rainier Pacheco, and public information officer Grace Perdines—cited their “important positions in government” and “unreasonable stress” in seeking a separate, earlier trial.

They were joined by former city councilors Andoni Miguel Carballo, Dante Santiago, Francis Keith Peralta, Edgardo Soriano, Jannah Ejercito-Surla, and Joseph Christopher Torralba.

90-day suspension

The said incumbent officials were ordered suspended on Sept. 12 for a period of 90 days, pending their trial for technical malversation and illegal use of public funds.

As city mayor in 2008, Ejercito was allowed by councilors to purchase high-powered firearms for the city’s police using P2.1 million of the calamity funds. But, the Ombudsman said, the city was not placed under a state of calamity when the funds were used, and guns were not among the items allowed for disaster relief and mitigation. The Ombudsman also flagged procurement irregularities in the deal.