Ducut posts bail for pork barrel scam cases

MANILA, Philippines – Former Energy Regulatory Commission chairperson Zenaida Ducut posted P140,000 bail before the Sandiganbayan yesterday morning for charges in connection with the pork barrel scam.

Ducut appeared before the anti-graft court’s Third Division to shell out P60,000 for two graft cases and P80,000 more for two malversation of public funds charges.

She underwent the usual booking procedure that includes submitting photographs, filling up a personal data sheet and submitting fingerprint samples.

Ducut refused to grant media interviews and left the Sandiganbayan building with her lawyer immediately after posting bail.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed criminal complaints against Ducut and former Davao del Sur first District representative Marc Douglas Cagas IV last week.

Investigation showed that Ducut and Cagas played a role in the pork barrel scam allegedly masterminded by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, who was also named a respondent in the cases along with a number of other individuals.

The Office of the Ombudsman ordered the filing of criminal charges against Cagas, former representative Rozzano Rufino Biazon and several other lawmakers last month.

Ducut was indicted for allegedly acting as a bagwoman for the legislators who received kickbacks or commissions from bogus non-government organizations (NGOs) controlled by Napoles that implemented fictitious projects.

Cagas was accused of misusing P11 million in pork barrel funds from 2007 to 2009 for which he allegedly received total commissions, rebates and kickbacks amounting to at least P5.5 million.

He had insisted that he could not have misappropriated or consented to the misappropriation of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) because he neither had control of nor was accountable for the funds.

Cagas claimed that the appointment of the implementing organizations, disbursement and utilization of his PDAF are not within his official functions as a lawmaker.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, however, rejected his defense, noting that his “contentions fail to persuade” as “the sworn statements of witnesses, disbursement vouchers, indorsed/encashed checks, MOAs with NGOs, written requests, liquidation reports and other evidence on record indubitably indicate that respondents conspired with one another to repeatedly raid the public treasury.”

ER posts bail

Less than 24 hours after the Sandiganbayan ordered his arrest, former Laguna governor Jorge “ER” Ejercito appeared before the anti-graft court yesterday to post bail for the second time.

He paid another P30,000 and underwent another booking procedure since his first bail, paid before Sta. Cruz, Laguna Regional Trial Court executive judge Cynthia Marno-Ricablanca last March 21, was confiscated.

Ejercito failed to appear before the Sandiganbayan for the arraignment of his graft case last Monday, prompting magistrates of the Fourth Division to order his arrest.

His lawyers, during the Monday hearing, failed to convince the anti-graft court that Ejercito could not make it to the arraignment due to his confinement at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan after he contracted pneumonia.

The Sandiganbayan is yet to schedule another arraignment date for Ejercito, who is accused of involvement in an insurance deal anomaly in 2008.

Ejercito refused to speak to the media but in an earlier statement sent to The STAR, he claimed that the Office of the Ombudsman had filed a baseless graft case against him that was actually junked by the anti-graft agency’s probers in 2011.