Court upholds graft trial of Lipa mayor, wife

The Sandiganbayan has cleared the way for the graft trial of Mayor Meynardo Sabili of Lipa City and his wife, Bernadette, in connection with the city’s contract for a radio program four years ago with a media company she owned.

In a 10-page resolution dated Jan. 25 but released to the press only on Tuesday, the court’s First Division denied the couple’s separate motions to quash the case for lack of probable cause to head to trial.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed the graft charge against Mayor Sabili and his wife in August 2016 for their “direct financial or pecuniary interest” in the city’s contract to air the public service radio program, “May Maaasahang Serbisyo.”

The P360,000 one-year radio program with BPS Broadcasting & Media Services began in January 2012. The Ombudsman said the media outfit’s proprietor then was Sabili’s common-law wife, a relationship the now-married couple had denied.