Devanadera to invoke ‘unreasonable delays’ in plea to junk graft case

Former Government Corporate Counsel Agnes Devanadera. PHOTO X Vince F. Nonato

Former Government Corporate Counsel Agnes Devanadera will also now invoke unreasonable delays by the Office of the Ombudsman, after officials of the Philippine National Construction Corp. were cleared of graft charges over an anomalous P6.185-billion debt settlement in 2006.

Devanadera’s “urgent motion” led the Sandiganbayan First Division to postpone her scheduled Thursday arraignment to June 8, as it has to resolve her pending issues first.

“Are you a Johnny-come-lately?” Justice Geraldine Faith Econg quipped during the hearing.

Devanadera’s lawyers explained they initially thought of their pending appeal on the court resolution that sustained the validity of the Ombudsman’s graft indictment.

However, after the court granted the motions to dismiss by 12 former PNCC executives, the Devanadera camp decided to invoke the Ombudsman’s investigation delays and the pending motion for judicial determination of probable cause “together.

The graft case arose from the PNCC’s disadvantageous compromise agreement with British lender Radstock Securities Ltd., to avoid further legal setbacks after the latter sued to collect Marcos-era debt.

As government corporate counsel, Devanadera allegedly advised the PNCC to take on the deal in February 2006 and signed the agreement in August that year.

The Sandiganbayan in its April 7 resolution granted the motions to dismiss filed by former board chairman Renato Valdecantos, president and chief executive officer Ma. Theresa Defensor, president and CEO Rolando Macasaet, chief operating officer Arthur Aguilar, and former board members Erwin Tanunliong, Hermogenes Concepcion Jr., Ottomama Benito, Enrique Cuejilo Jr., Roy Eduardo Lucero, Fermin Lusung Sr., Jeremy Parulan, and Antonio Villar.

It said the Office of the Ombudsman should have acted on the case as soon as former PNCC president Luis Sison filed a complaint only against Aguilar in 2006.

The Ombudsman would only act on the case when Sison in 2010 filed a new complaint against Aguilar and his fellow PNCC executives, as well as Devanadera. The newer case arose from the 2009 Supreme Court ruling that annulled the onerous deal.

The Sandiganbayan found that it took six years, or ten in Aguilar’s case, at the preliminary investigation stage before their cases reached the court. This violated their right to the speedy disposition of their cases.

The April 7 resolution prompted Devanadera to file an April 18 motion arguing that the finding of inordinate delay should apply to her too.

Her motion pointed out that she was similarly charged with violating Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act on the basis of the “same set of facts and evidence.”

“It is therefore respectfully submitted that the Resolution of the Honorable Court dated April 7, 2017… must equally apply to her not only because the facts and issues are the same in the instant case, but also because she is affected by and should benefit from it,” the motion read.

Besides Devanadera, the only other remaining defendant in the case is former PNCC board member Raymundo Francisco.

The deal saw PNCC hand over P3.188-billion worth of government-owned real properties, a 20% share in the firm worth P713 million, and half of its 6% share in the gross toll revenue of the Manila North Tollways Corp., from 2008 to 2035, approximately valued at P1.287 billion.

Prosecutors claimed the PNCC’s assignment of “substantially all of its assets” in order to pay its obligations to Radstock was prejudicial to its other creditors, including the national government.

In the 2009 SC ruling, decision writer Antonio Carpio dubbed the agreement as “pillage of the public coffers that ranks among one of the most brazen and hideous in the history of this country.”