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Sandiganbayan denies recall of witness in P54-M graft, malversation charges
Sandiganbayan denies recall of witness in P54-M graft, malversation charges
The Sandiganbayan has denied the motion of prosecutors of the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) to recall one of their witnesses to testify anew and identify documents in the case filed against the late former Benguet Rep. Samuel M. Dangwa.
The charges against Dangwa on the alleged misuse of his P54 million in priority development assistance fund (PDAF) had been dismissed on account of his death in 2019.
Still pending resolution by the Sandiganbayan are the charges filed against Dangwa’s co-accused – Dangwa’s son Erwin and businesswomen Janet Lim Napoles.
Denied by the Sandiganbayan was the prosecution’s plea to recall lawyer RJ A. Bernal to testify anew and identify certain documents.
The prosecution claimed that when the charges were filed, it had not yet received the bank inquiry report from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC). It said it had no way of knowing that the bank accounts of Ginintuang Alay sa Magsasaka Foundation, Inc. (GAMFI) and JCLN Global Properties Development Corporation were involved the alleged PDAF misuse of the late Dangwa.
The anti-graft court had already denied the motion of the prosecution to recall Bernal. The prosecution, however, filed a motion to reconsider the court’s ruling.
"There is nothing in the present case that leads us to conclude that disallowing Atty. Bernal to testify and identify the subject documents would lead to an apparent miscarriage of justice," the court said in denying the motion.
It cited its previous resolution which allowed the recall of lawyer Eunice Dalisay-Salazar of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to produce and identify the corporate documents of JCLN and GAMFI.
"It bears pointing out that the documents that will be identified by Atty. Dalisay-Salazar are also the same documents that the prosecution seeks to identify through Atty. Bernal," the resolution – written by Associate Justice Ronald B. Moreno with the concurrence of Presiding Justice Amparo M. Cabotaje Tang and Associate Justice Bernelito R. Fernandez -- stated.
The late legislator was charged with six counts each of graft and malversation as well as five counts of direct bribery in relation to his P54 million PDAF.
He was accused of allowing his PDAF from 2001 to 2010 to be used by alleged fictitious non-government organizations owned by Napoles in exchange for alleged kickbacks amounting to P26.7 million. His son, Erwin, and Napoles were included in the cases.