DBM won’t suspend Relampagos for now

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will not enforce the 90-day suspension of Undersecretary Mario Relampagos and his staffers for now, pending their appeal against the Sandiganbayan’s order.

Relampagos and his staffers Rosario Nuñez, Lalaine Paule, and Marilou Bare had been suspended pending their graft trial over the alleged misuse of Muntinlupa City Rep. Rozzano Rufino Biazon’s pork barrel funds in 2007. Biazon had volunteered to serve his suspension as soon as he received the order last month.

But the DBM Legal Service said the Sandiganbayan Seventh Division’s Oct. 17 resolution provides that the officials be suspended “unless a motion for reconsideration is seasonably filed.”

In a compliance letter received by the court last week, DBM lawyers noted that Relampagos and his staffers had already filed their appeal.

“Pursuant to the said resolution, this Office will await for the final resolution of said motion and/or upon further directive from this honorable court,” stated the report prepared by DBM lawyers Maria Paula Domingo and Rosemarie Pagala.

In a related development, state prosecutors have objected to Relampagos’ appeal against his suspension. They noted that Relampagos and his staffers had only raised practically the same arguments already presented before the court issued its order.

The three-page opposition reiterated that Section 13 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act mandated the suspension of public officials facing valid graft charges. Since Relampagos and his staffers have already been arraigned on Sept. 6, prosecutors said their suspension was warranted.

The case stemmed from Biazon’s endorsement of P3 million of his Priority Development Assistance Fund allocations, or pork barrel as Muntinlupa representative in 2007, to the Janet Lim-Napoles-controlled nongovernment organization Philippine Social Foundation Inc., with the now-defunct Technology Resource Center acting as the implementing agency.