SC malversation ruling wins bail for ex-solon

THE SANDIGANBAYAN has granted temporary liberty to former Lanao del Norte Rep. Abdullah Dimaporo in deference to a recent Supreme Court decision declaring malversation of public funds a bailable offense.

Dimaporo, who was arrested in August 2013 in connection with the P728-million fertilizer fund scam, secured his release order from the antigraft court’s Second Division posting bail of P200,000 on Friday.

In allowing Dimaporo bail, the three-member Second Division said the Supreme Court’s Dec. 8, 2015, ruling “resolved convincingly… the nagging issue of whether malversation through falsification (of public documents)… is bailable or not.”

“In precise and in no uncertain terms, it has expressly ruled that an accused charged with the complex crime of malversation… is entitled to bail as a matter of right and a summary hearing on a bail application is, therefore, unnecessary,” said the Sandiganbayan’s March 10 resolution.

The four-page ruling was penned by Associate Justice Teresita Diaz-Baldos, Second Division chair, with Associate Justices Napoleon Inoturan and Maria Cristina Cornejo concurring.

Prosecutors from the Office of the Ombudsman had opposed Dimaporo’s motion, arguing that the Supreme Court’s ruling was not yet final and executory.

The Sandiganbayan countered that the Supreme Court had actually issued another decision on Feb. 2 which resolved the issue with finality.

Dimaporo was indicted by the Ombudsman for allegedly allocating P5 million from the Farm Inputs and Farm Implement Program of the Department of Agriculture to Lanao Foundation Inc. (LFI), a nongovernment organization he created in 1994.

The money was said to be part of the hundreds of millions in fertilizer funds allegedly diverted to the presidential campaign in 1994 of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.