Ex-DA chief wants plunder case junked

Former Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo has asked the Sandiganbayan to defer the issuance of his arrest warrant and to dismiss the plunder case filed against him in connection with the P728 million fertilizer fund scam.

In an omnibus motion, Lorenzo contended that the Office of the Ombudsman did not give him due process before hauling him to court for the non-bailable offense.

He also said there was no probable cause to charge him with plunder, and that it was his co-accused, former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante, who had handled the funds for fertilizer and farm input program.

Lorenzo and Bolante are among those charged with plunder before the Sandiganbayan. Also facing the same charges are former Assistant Secretary Ibarra Poliquit and fertilizer suppliers Jaime Paule, Marilyn Araos, Joselito Flordeliza, Marites Aytona, Leonicia Llarena and Jose Barredo. Barredo was the whistle-blower who revealed the alleged scam to the Senate.

According to Lorenzo, he was only probed for malversation and violation of the antigraft law and was never subjected to any preliminary investigation for plunder.

“The Ombudsman’s sudden and surprising alteration or ’upgrading’ of the charges into plunder, without conducting any preliminary investigation for plunder, is an outrageous act of prosecutorial ambush,” he said.

He said the plunder charge against him was void without this preliminary investigation, to which he has a constitutional right.

But Lorenzo said that even if the Ombudsman had followed the proper process, there was still no basis to charge him with plunder since he did not handle funds for the program.