Court upholds Elenita Binay’s acquittal

The Sandiganbayan Fourth Division has denied the Ombudsman’s appeal over its November 2016 decision to acquit former Makati Mayor Elenita Binay of graft charges due to the purchase of allegedly overpriced furniture for city hall.

In a three-page minute resolution dated Nov. 7 which it released only recently, the court said it could not reconsider its verdict without putting Binay and her two coaccused in double jeopardy.

“From the constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy stems the finality-of-acquittal rule whereby a judgement of acquittal… is considered final, unappealable and immediately executory,” read the resolution.

It added that there was “nothing to reconsider” anyway, insisting it exhaustively addressed the arguments raised by the prosecution during trial.

The prosecution had claimed the city government failed to hold a public bidding for the purchase of P13.25 million worth of panel partitions and furniture for city hall.

Instead, the city government procured the equipment in December 1999 through a “repeat order” of a September 1999 purchase awarded to Office Gallery International, Inc. According to the prosecution, the purchase was overpriced by P3.6 million.

The court, however, reiterated that the prosecution was only able to raise “red flags” in the September 1999 bidding under Purchase Order No. 9989 and “merely relied on suspicions which later turned out to be unfounded.”

It said it found Purchase Order No. 10473, the December 1999 repeat order, to be valid and compliant with the Commission on Audit’s Circular No. 92-386.

The resolution did not discuss at length the prosecution’s argument that the acquittal was premature and violated the State’s right to due process.