Dichaves plunder case goes to top Sandigan justice

The plunder case of businessman Jaime Dichaves was raffled off on Friday to the Sandiganbayan Third Division under Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, according to a matrix seen by the Inquirer.

This was in compliance with the Supreme Court’s Feb. 14 en banc resolution directing that the case be assigned to a regular court.

The division chaired by Tang is also composed of Justices Sarah Jane T. Fernandez and Bernelito R. Fernandez.

Dichaves is accused of being the bagman of former President Joseph Estrada, whom the Sandiganbayan sentence to life imprisonment for plunder in September 2007, only to be pardoned by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo six weeks later.

The confessed owner of the “Jose Velarde” dummy account will only now have his day in court, 16 years after fleeing the country in the aftermath of Estrada’s impeachment in 2000.

The Supreme Court on Dec. 7 denied Dichaves’ petition challenging his indictment by the Ombudsman, finding that the antigraft agency did not commit grave abuse of discretion.—VINCE F. NONATO