News Briefs: Gigi Reyes’ bid to dismiss plunder case nixed

State prosecutors have opposed the appeal of former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s chief of staff, Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, to dismiss her P172.83-million plunder case. In a 25-page opposition, the Ombudsman’s special prosecutor said Reyes only raised “nothing more but mere reiterations and rehashes” of the issues she already posed in her motion to quash the charge sheet for being defective and vague. It may be recalled that the Sandiganbayan First Division denied her motion on Jan. 3 because the Supreme Court’s order for the prosecution to clarify the Enrile case through a bill of particulars “presupposes a valid information… albeit under vague terms.” The resolution also pointed out that Reyes did not join Enrile’s petition before the SC and thus could not question the bill of particulars submitted by prosecutors. It also said it was too late for Reyes to seek even more particularity in the plunder allegations because she was already arraigned. —VINCE F. NONATO

PCGG loses case vs Geronimo Velasco’s nephew

The Philippine government lost its case to pin down a nephew of the late Energy Minister Geronimo Z. Velasco Jr. as the latter’s dummy. In a Jan. 31, 2017, decision penned by Associate Justice Alfred Benjamin S. Caguioa, the high court denied the Presidential Commission on Good Government’s (PCGG) petition to reverse a Sandiganbayan ruling that there was no sufficient evidence to prove that Alfred De Borja acted as the dummy of Velasco who allegedly received millions in dollars in freight commissions as then chief of the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC). The Supreme Court ruled that the Sandiganbayan did not commit a “reversible error” in granting De Borja a demurrer to evidence in the ill-gotten wealth case filed against him, Velasco, Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda, Epifanio Verano, Decision Research Management (Hong Kong) and other coaccused. Verano had claimed that De Borja collected in behalf of Velasco the freight commissions derived from the PNOC chartered vessels. Verano was then PNOC vice president who negotiated for the commissions. —GIL C. CABACUNGAN

Sandiganbayan junks graft case vs ex-Leyte mayor et al

The Sandiganbayan has thrown out the graft case against the former mayor of Capoocan, Leyte, over unreasonable delays on the part of the Office of the Ombudsman. In a nine-page resolution, the court’s Fifth Division lamented that it took four years and seven months to conclude the preliminary investigation on the complaint against Federico Carolino Sr., the town’s incumbent vice mayor. Also cleared were bids and awards committee members Pio Antonio Borrel, Macario Noel Gullemas, Letecia Morelos and Jesalie Loteyro. The court said the prosecution “failed to explain the protracted amount of time” in haling Carolino and other town officials to court since Emeterio Tañala filed his complaint in September 2011. It was only in January 2014 that the Ombudsman in the Visayas finally ordered the respondents to file their counteraffidavits. Although the resolution finding probable cause against Carolino was dated Sept. 15, 2014, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales only approved the indictment on March 8, 2016. The Capoocan officials were accused of graft over the allegedly anomalous procurement of two Mitsubishi dump trucks in 2008. —VINCE F. NONATO