Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. and his daughter Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog. Photos from www.ozamiz.gov.ph
MANILA — The Sandiganbayan has upheld its dismissal of the graft case filed against Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and his daughter, Vice-Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog, on the grounds of inordinate delay in the Ombudsman’s investigation.
In a strongly-worded four-page resolution dated June 14, the court’s Fifth Division denied the prosecution’s appeal on its April 7ruling that granted the Parojinogs’ motion to quash their graft case.
The case arose from the mayor’s award of a gym renovation project to her daughter’s firm, Parojinog & Sons Construction Company, in 2008.
The court said the prosecution appeal “failed to address” its finding that the four-year fact-finding investigation stage from December 2010 to December 2014 must be computed in determining inordinate delay.
The resolution stated that when the Ombudsman referred the case to the Commission on Audit in December 2010, it effectively took cognizance of the case already. Thus, it considered the case to have taken five years and 11 months before it was finally filed before the Sandiganbayan on Nov. 23, 2016.
It was not moved by the prosecution’s argument that only the preliminary investigation stage should have been considered, beginning from the Field Investigation Office’s filing of a formal complaint on Dec. 8, 2014.
The Ombudsman has a pending petition at the Supreme Court seeking a stricter application of the inordinate delay doctrine to exclude this evidence-gathering stage, since it is still confidential and a complaint has not been formalized yet. The Supreme Court petition was anchored on the case against former Government Service Insurance System president Winston Garcia, which was thrown out in March 2016.
The court also took the prosecution to task for not addressing its earlier finding that the information did not sufficiently allege the facts to establish a valid case for graft.
It said the prosecution must have expected that they could convince the court not to throw out the case on the ground of inordinate delay and get more time to correct the charge sheet later.
“The prosecution simply, but wrongly, anticipated that we will reverse our finding that there was inordinate delay, thus giving them the right to amend the information,” the resolution read.
On a more technical ground, the court said the prosecution failed to abide by the rules providing for the motion to be heard not more than 10 days after it was filed. The appeal was filed on April 27, but it was set for hearing on May 12.
Not only was the appeal heard too late, state prosecutors also failed to furnish the Parojinog camp of a copy of the motion three days before the hearing.
“A motion that does not comply with the requirements of… the Rules of Court is a worthless piece of paper which the clerk of court has no right to receive and which the court has no authority to act upon,” read the resolution.
The resolution was penned by Associate Justice Maria Theresa V. Mendoza-Arcega and concurred in by Associate Justices Rafael R. Lagos and Reynaldo P. Cruz.
Last year, President Duterte accused the mayor of links to the illegal drug trade. At one point, he erroneously claimed that convicted robber Herbert Colanggo was Mayor Parojinog’s son-in-law. The mayor clarified that the inmate only had a relationship with Vice Mayor Parojinog, which he disapproved of. SFM
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