Morales: I’m against Garcia plea bargain deal

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales on Friday defended her position paper opposing the plea bargain on the plunder case of former military comptroller Carlos Garcia, saying she believed it was the best way to inform the Sandiganbayan of her stand on the matter.

Morales said that contrary to what media reports might have conveyed, she did not backtrack on her stand against the deal between Garcia and state prosecutors, which was forged during the term of her predecessor as Ombudsman, Merceditas Gutierrez.

The plea bargain extinguished Garcia’s P303-million plunder and money laundering case and required him to plead guilty to lighter offenses of direct bribery and facilitating money laundering, in exchange for turning over to the state P135 million in his and his family’s assets.

President Aquino and other administration officials had assailed the plea bargain.

But state prosecutors had described the deal as the best option for the government in view of the purported insufficient evidence to pin down Garcia for plunder. They also said the deal would conserve the state’s time and resources.

The ‘right’ stance

Speaking on Friday at his first press conference, Morales said the position paper “would best convey to the court what I thought was right.”

“I thought it best that I would come up with a position paper in light of the fact that my predecessor adopted a different position,” she said.

In her position paper, Morales called on the antigraft court to nullify its ruling approving the plea bargain

She also said that the Office of the Solicitor General must be allowed to intervene in the case, and that it was too early to pronounce the evidence against Garcia as weak.

Earlier, Morales’ representatives told the Sandiganbayan Second Division that her position paper was merely “food for thought” for the court. They said it was up to the Sandiganbayan to decide what to do with it.

The court said that since the paper was not a motion, all it was required to do was note it.