Former Palawan Gov. Mario Joel Reyes (File photo from Philippine Daily Inquirer)
If former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes had escaped back when he was only facing indictment for murder, all the more now when he has been sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for graft.
The Ombudsman stressed this on Thursday, as it reiterated its plea for the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division to cancel the bail of the recently freed politician and order his rearrest.
In an 11-page reply to Reyes’ objection, state prosecutors said that his release from detention following the Court of Appeals’ Jan. 5 decision to junk his murder case over the killing of broadcaster Gerry Ortega warranted the cancellation of his bail.
“He fled the country when he was just facing the issue of probable cause in another criminal case, with more reason that the Honorable Court should be wary of his claims given his looming imprisonment of more than six years when the decision rendered on Aug. 29, 2017, is affirmed,” prosecutors said.
The Ombudsman took exception to Reyes’ claim in the opposition he filed on Monday, that he had “always been respectful of the Honorable Court and its processes.”
Prosecutors reminded the court that Reyes “violated the terms of his provisional liberty” when he jumped bail on his graft case and escaped to Thailand in March 2012, following the Department of Justice’s finding of probable cause to charge him over Ortega’s murder.
Reyes and his brother, former Coron Mayor Mario Reyes, were deported back to Manila in September 2015, following their arrest by Thai authorities.
Reyes’ graft conviction arose from the anomalous renewal of the small-scale mining permit of Olympic Mines and Development Corp. in 2006, despite its having exceeded the ore-extraction limits and its use of equipment in violation of small-scale mining laws.