Sandiganbayan clears Elenita Binay in P13.2-M graft case

The Sandiganbayan Fourth Division acquitted on Thursday former Makati Mayor Elenita Binay and two others of graft charges over the purchase of allegedly overpriced city hall furniture amounting to P13.25 million in 1999.

This marked the first time Binay was acquitted by way of a full-blown trial. Previously, two related graft cases were dismissed by the court’s Second and Fifth Divisions which granted the demurrer filed by her camp. The cases were dismissed on Apr. 7, 2011 and Oct. 28 this year, respectively.

In the latest case, the Fourth Division cited the “failure of the prosecution to establish the elements of the offense for which [the accused] stand charged.”

Also acquitted were Ernesto Aspillaga, former head of the city’s general services department and Vivian Edna Edurise, corporate officer of contractor Office Gallery International Inc.

As if to stress the importance of consolidating court cases, the Fourth Division’s decision was meant to avoid pre-empting another court’s ruling on a separate but related graft case against Binay.

The case arose from Binay and other city officials’ alleged failure to bid out the contract for P13.25 million worth of panel partitions and furniture for city hall.

Instead of conducting a new public bidding, the city government procured the items on December 1999 through a “repeat order” of a September 1999 purchase awarded to Office Gallery. Prosecutors claimed the December transaction was overpriced by P3.6 million.

However, the Fourth Division said it could not declare the December repeat order invalid as the Fifth Division has yet to rule on the separate graft case involving the original purchase order (PO).

Since the September order has yet to be invalidated, the prosecution could not establish that city officials violated Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act by acting with “manifest partiality, evident bad faith or inexcusable negligence” in undertaking the December repeat order.

“Simply put, determining the validity of PO 10473 is premature pending the determination of the validity of PO 9989,” the decision read.

Justice Jose R. Hernandez penned the 38-page decision with the concurrence of Justices Alex L. Quiroz and Ma. Theresa V. Mendoza-Arcega.

Binay is married to former Vice President Jejomar Binay.