Court sustains graft case vs Lipa mayor, wife

Lipa City Mayor Meynardo A. Sabili (Photo from the official website of Lipa City at www.lipa.gov.ph)

MANILA — The Sandiganbayan is set to try Lipa City Mayor Meynardo Sabili and his wife Bernadette Palomares-Sabili for graft over the city’s programming contract with her media outfit in 2012.

In a 10-page resolution, the court’s First Division denied the  couple’s separate motions to quash the case for supposed lack of probable cause to head to trial.

Mayor Sabili is accused of having direct financial or pecuniary interest in the city’s contract with BPS Broadcasting & Media Services to air the radio program May Maaasahang Serbisyo for P360,000 for one year. BPS proprietor Palomares-Sabili was purportedly his common-law wife at the time.

The court said that at this point, the allegations thus far have sufficiently made a case for violation of Section 3 (h) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. On this basis, it affirmed that there was probable cause to head to trial.

It rejected the Sabilis’ claim that the Office of the Ombudsman violated their right to due process because prosecutors brought a case that was different from the original accusations of private complainant Rodel Abraham.

The court said the couple was given “ample opportunity” to counter the complaint through their joint counter-affidavit and joint rejoinder-affidavit, and appeal the Ombudsman’s indictment through a motion for reconsideration.

Even if Abraham executed an affidavit of desistance stating the charge was fabricated and politically motivated, the court said it did not necessarily bind the Office of the Ombudsman.

Meanwhile, the court said it would not yet touch upon the defense arguments raised by the Sabilis, such as the lack of conspiracy and the mayor’s claim that he had no intervention in the city’s broadcasting agreement.

Palomares-Sabili also questioned the basis for the prosecutors’ claim that the couple were common-law spouses before the contract was terminated upon their marriage in September 2012.

These matters, the court said, would be “evidentiary in nature and are matters of defense, the truth of which can be best passed upon after a full-blown trial on the merits.”

Justice Efren N. de la Cruz penned the resolution, with the concurrence of Justices Reynaldo P. Cruz and Bernelito R. Fernandez. SFM