Sandiganbayan. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
The Sandiganbayan has denied the appeal of state prosecutors on the dismissal of the plunder charge against former Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Luis Lorenzo and Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante over the fertilizer fund scam.
In a resolution promulgated Feb. 6, the Sandiganbayan Special Second Division said the prosecution “ignorantly” accused the court of “going beyond its authority to determine probable cause for the purpose of the issuance of warrants of arrest.”
In the resolution penned by division chairperson Associate Justice Samuel Martires, the court took exception to the prosecution’s claim that the division dismissed the case using prima facie evidence or proof beyond reasonable doubt.
The prosecution claimed the court went beyond what it is allowed to do in the stage of proceedings.
But the court said all it did was to discharge its duty of determining whether or not there is probable cause in the prudent mind that an offense was committed, and that the court did not prevent the prosecution from exercising its own review of the case when the Ombudsman found probable cause.
The court said it did not infringe on the prosecution’s executive function, and thus the prosecution should not infringe also on the court’s judicial function of determining probable cause
“If the prosecution expects the Court to issue a warrant of arrest, and thus, not dismiss the case, because it (prosecution) had previously determined the existence of probable cause, then it is utterly mistaken,” the court said.
The court reminded the prosecution that there is “no rule or jurisprudence that compels the Court to adopt in toto the findings of the public prosecutor.”
“As the prosecution is wont in reminding this Court not to intrude into the former’s executive functions, so must this Court do also to remind the prosecution to refrain from interfering with the court’s judicial functions,” the court said.
The court added that the prosecution failed to present any new argument to warrant the reversal of the court’s earlier ruling.
The resolution was concurred by Associate Justices Michael Frederick Musngi and Geraldine Faith Econg.
In its motion for reconsideration, the Office of the Special Prosecutor insisted there is probable cause for the issuance of a warrant of arrest against the two for plunder.
READ: Prosecutors appeal dismissal of Bolante’s fertilizer scam raps
Prosecutors said it was Lorenzo who delegated to Bolante the authority over the P723-million fund for the Farm Inputs Farm Implement Project during the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004.
Prosecutors said Bolante gained “absolute control” over the fertilizer fund, and that Lorenzo through neglect allowed Bolante and other respondents to misappropriate the public funds for personal gain.
The panel said they were able to prove that Bolante and his cohorts diverted P56.6 million and P153 million to the accounts of the National Organization for Agriculture Enhancement and Productivity Inc. and Feshan Philippines through the anomalous sales of the fertilizers to the local chief executives and representatives.
Bolante and then Assistant Agriculture Secretary Ibarra Trinidad Poliquit also caused the downloading of the funds to the DA Regional Field Units while disregarding the official list of allocations.
Prosecutors appealed to the court not to turn a “blind eye” on the findings of the Field Investigation Office Task Force Abono, the DA, Commission on Audit, and the Senate Blue RIbbon Committee on the alleged scam.
READ: WHAT WENT BEFORE: Fertilizer scam
The prosecution also cited the judicial affidavit of Jose Barredo Jr., who was dropped as an accused by the Ombudsman to turn him as state witness.
In his affidavit, Barredo alleged that he was sent as a “runner” to deal with officials in signing the memoranda of agreement for the fertilizer deals and delivering these to the agriculture department where Bolante was said to have expedited the release of the funds.
Barredo also exposed the receipt of kickbacks or SOP (standard operating procedure) to several public officials who allegedly participated in the anomalous agricultural projects, the prosecution said.
The prosecution said it would be too premature for the court to expect the prosecutors to prove how the alleged commissions ended up in the personal account of the accused.
“The scheme on effecting raid of the public treasury was such that the public fund was treated and used as if it were the personal fund of the accused, such that it becomes unnecessary to present proof at this early stage that such public fund found its way to the personal account of the accused, as what the Honorable Court wanted the prosecution to prove,” the prosecutors said.
READ: Sandigan clears 2 ex-agri execs of plunder in fertilizer fund scam
In its resolution finding no probable cause, the court said the prosecution failed to provide evidence that would actually link Bolante to the act of plunder.
“There is no document and/or testimony submitted to establish that accused Bolante received this unliquidated amount so as to make him probably guilty of the crime of plunder,” the court said.
The court found Barredo’s 20-page judicial affidavit to be lacking, because it only detailed “the modus operandi of the fertilizer scam, the persons who were offered, or had received and how the ‘SOP,’ or commissions were distributed.”
The prosecutors’ evidence also failed to show “that the fund eventually ended up with Bolante.”
Lorenzo, Bolante and their co-accused were charged with plunder for allegedly accumulating P265.6 million in kickbacks from the P723-million fertilizer funds under the Farm Input Farm Implement Program of the Department of Agriculture under the Arroyo administration.
Plunder, a criminal charge involving earning at least P50-million in ill-gotten wealth, is a non-bailable offense.
The plunder case lodged against Bolante and Lorenzo stemmed from the alleged racket of paying off lawmakers, governors and mayors using the P723-million fertilizer funds sourced from the Farm Input-Farm Implement program in 2004.
The said funds were said to have been diverted to Arroyo’s campaign kitty that year to pay off favored local officials in an alleged vote-buying scheme. The Ombudsman cleared Arroyo of liability over the scam.
The scheme is done by overpricing the fertilizers originally priced at P150 from supplier Feshan Phils. to as much as P1,500 when the LGUs bought it from the distributor Araos Trading.
The dealers also diluted the liquid fertilizers with water to further bring down the price from P350 to as low as P150 per one-liter bottle. RAM
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