MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the President (OP) has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to deny the petition seeking to lift the 90-day preventive suspension it had issued against Special Prosecutor Wendell Barreras Sulit.

In a pleading filed for the OP by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), the SC was told that the suspension was issued in connection with a formal charge of acts and omissions constituting graft and corruption or betrayal of public trust in connection with the plea bargain deal between the Office of the Ombudsman and former military comptroller Carlos Garcia.

Under the plea bargain in the P303-million plunder case, Garcia pleaded guilty to lesser offenses of direct bribery and facilitating money laundering and volunteered to transfer P135.4 million worth of assets to the government.

The OSG said that “the preventive suspension imposed by respondent OP upon petitioner Sulit is not a penalty but a mere preventive measure and is merely intended to enable the disciplining authority to investigate the charges against her.”

Thus, the OSG said that “Sulit is not entitled to an injunctive writ.”

It pointed out that “the fact that formal charges have already been filed against her which is a pre-condition to the imposition of the preventive suspension (the suspension) does not automatically translate to injury."

At the same time, the OSG said: “The preventive suspension does not mean that petitioner has already been adjudged guilty of the charges filed against her. It does not result in her permanent removal from the position. On the contrary, it is only the beginning, the preliminary step in the administrative investigation against her for the charges filed."

It said that the OP has the exclusive authority to suspend Sulit by virtue of the Revised Administrative Code of 1987 which states that “the proper disciplining authority may preventively suspend any subordinate officer or employee under his authority pending an investigation, if the charge against such officer or employee involves dishonesty, oppression, or grave misconduct, or neglect in the performance of duty, or if there are reasons to believe that the respondent is guilty of charges which would warrant his removal from the service."

It added that the law confers on the President the power not only to appoint a Special Prosecutor but also to dismiss him or her.