Facacde of the Centennial Building that houses the Sandiganbayan. (File photo from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA — Dismissed Commission on Human Rights commissioner Cecilia Rachel “Coco” Quisumbing has asked the Sandiganbayan Second Division to dismiss her three criminal charges over her alleged pocketing of an employee’s salary raise.
In a three-page motion, Quisumbing said the graft, extortion and ethical misconduct cases against her should be dismissed due to inordinate delay in the Office of the Ombudsman’s investigation.
She said the Ombudsman took almost four years to terminate the preliminary investigation stage and pointed out that the prosecution could have filed the criminal case at the Sandiganbayan as soon as she
was slapped with the administrative sanction of dismissal in September 2014.
As an alternative to the outright dismissal of her case, Quisumbing also asked the court to require the Ombudsman prosecutors to submit a bill of particulars to specify the details of her criminal charges.
She said the prosecution “miserably failed to allege the material facts constituting the offenses” she was charged for.
Her motion stated that the information did not even specify the particular dates when the offense took place, only stating a period of time.
“The prosecution is duty bound to be definite as to the date and time when the alleged direct bribery was committed in order to avoid surprises during the Trial and to limit the parameters of the presentation of evidence of the prosecution and the accused presentation [sic] of her evidence,” the motion read.
Ombudsman records showed that Quisumbing in January 2013 promoted her coterminus staff Ma. Regina Eugenio from Administrative Aide VI to Senior Administrative Assistant III “in disregard of the Civil Service Commission’s rules on merit and promotion.”
The prosecution said that from January to July 2013, she demanded the P41,292 salary differential representing Eugenio’s additional pay when she was promoted. SFM