Elenita Binay blocks state appeal on graft acquittal

Former Makati City Mayor Elenita Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

MANILA — The camp of former Makati City Mayor Elenita Binay has opposed the appeal of state prosecutors on the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division’s dismissal of the P21.7-million graft case against her.

In a 27-page opposition dated Dec. 28, Binay asked the anti-graft court to deny the Nov. 10 motion for reconsideration filed by the Ombudsman’s Office of the Special Prosecutor for “utter lack of merit.”

She said the court’s Oct. 28 decision to grant her demurrer to the evidence was, in effect, an acquittal that could not be reversed without putting her in double jeopardy. Her motion stated that the prosecutors’ bid for the court to go over the evidence for a second time would violate her rights.

At the same time, Binay asked the court to consider censuring the prosecution for “gross ignorance” of the law.

The court, in its Oct. 28 decision, said that prosecutors had failed to establish the supposed conspiracy to rig the bidding for the purchase of furniture for the city hall in favor of Asia Concept International, Inc.

Binay’s motion argued that the case did not fall within the exception to the general rule on the finality of acquittals. The prosecution, it stated, did not allege that the court acted with grave abuse of discretion or that the decision was a void judgement.

“A review of alleged errors in judgment arising from misappreciation of facts and the evidence adduced cannot be made without trampling upon the right of the accused against double jeopardy which is firmly established in Philippine jurisdiction,” the pleading read.

Binay also slammed the appeal as an example of “prosecutorial misconduct” because it was “defective both in form and substance.”

She asked the court to “consider the applicability” of the Supreme Court’s action in the 2001 case of Argel v. Pascua. In this case, the high court fined a Vigan City judge for recalling her earlier decision to acquit a murder defendant even as such rulings were supposed to be final.

“It is thus submitted that Argel, is authority for the proposition that a revision of acquittal, final upon promulgation, could be a ground for administrative liability,” Binay’s motion read.

This case was one of the three graft cases won by Binay in connection with the alleged irregularities in the purchase of city hall furniture from 1999 to 2000.

Like the Fifth Division, the Second Division on Apr. 7, 2011 dismissed a P58.04-million graft case on demurrer. The Fourth Division, meanwhile, acquitted Binay on Nov. 17  this year after her P13.25-million graft case went through a full-blown trial.

One more related case is still pending with the Fifth Division, which handles the case covering a P72.06-million contract in 1999.

Binay also faces four graft and malversation cases pending before the Third Division over the purchase of P45-million worth of hospital beds and sterilizers for the city-run Ospital ng Makati in 2000 and 2001.  SFM