Sandiganbayan sets trial of Yap over firetruck deal

The Sandiganbayan will proceed with the graft trial of former Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIAA) chief Adelberto Yap over a supposedly anomalous P38.14-million firetruck deal in 2006.

The court’s Third Division denied Yap’s motion to quash two graft cases against him because, he claimed, the Ombudsman took 10 years to file a case against him.

The court also denied similar motions filed by MCIAA accounting division officer in charge Ma. Venus Casas and Asiaborders Philippines president Marlon Barillo.

The court did not find merit in the defendants’ claim that the decade-long delay in the preliminary investigation violated their right to the speedy disposition of their cases.

The court believed the prosecution’s explanation that the Commission on Audit (COA) had to finalize its findings on the purchase of a fire-fighting truck from Asiaborders.

Immediately upon the filing of businessman Crisologo Saavedra’s second complaint in 2008, the Assistant Ombudsman for Visayas requested the COA to submit an audit report.

But, the findings, deemed crucial to the case buildup, were only issued in 2012 despite repeated follow-ups.

Besides this, the Sandiganbayan also pointed out the accused did not invoke their right to the speedy disposition of the case when it was still at the Ombudsman’s level.

“Failure to assert it with reasonable promptitude may be considered a waiver of such right,” the resolution read.

It emphasized that Barillo even failed to file a counteraffidavit as ordered in June 2014, which meant he “ignored the opportunity to answer the charges against him.”

The court added that Saavedra’s first complaint in 2006 should not be included in reckoning the delay because it was dismissed by the Ombudsman and had nothing to do with the instant case.

“In sum, the Court does not find the delay in the proceedings before the Office of the Ombudsman to be vexatious, arbitrary, capricious or oppressive,” read the resolution penned by Presiding Justice Amparo M. Cabotaje-Tang.

Yap, Barillo and Casas, along with MCIAA bids and awards chair Veronica Ordoñez and legal officer Sigfredo Dublin, were charged with graft for releasing a P6-million advance payment to Asiaborders in March 2006.