Sandigan nixes ex-Rizal governor's bid to dismiss his fertilizer scam raps

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has denied the motion of former Rizal governor Casimiro Ynares Jr. seeking the dismissal his graft cases which stemmed from his alleged involvement in the multimillion-peso fertilizer fund scam.

In a 14-page resolution dated November 29, the anti-graft court's Third Division said Ynares “failed to raise matters substantially plausible or compellingly persuasive” to warrant the dismissal of this four counts of graft.

The cases stemmed from the alleged purchase of liquid fertilizers totaling P3.597 million in November 2004 and March 2005 supposedly without holding a public bidding required under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act. The procured items were also allegedly overpriced by P3.237 million.

The Third Division also denied the respective motions to quash filed by seven former Rizal provincial officials named as Ynares' co-accused in the cases.

The court found no merit in Ynares and the other respondents' claim that their constitutional right to speedy disposition of cases was violated by the Office of the Ombudsman.

In their respective motions to quash, Ynares and his co-accused said the cases must be dismissed due to ombudsman's “inordinate delay” in investigating the complaint against them before filing the cases in court.

The respondents said there is no justifiable reason for the ombudsman to take more than 12 years to finish its investigation as the crime was allegedly committed as early as 2004.

In his motion, Ynares said it was only in May 2011 when the ombudsman's Task Force Abono finished its fact-finding investigation and filed a formal complaint against him and other then provincial officials before the ombudsman central office.

Ynares noted that it was on Aug. 16, 2016 when the ombudsman ruled with finality finding probable cause to charge him and the other respondents in court, and yet, it was only on Feb. 6, 2017 when the cases were formally filed before the Sandiganbayan.

In its ruling, Third Division, however, maintained that the time allotted in fact-finding investigation must not be included in the computation of the supposed period of inordinate delay. Furthermore, the court said Ynares and the other respondents also failed to show that the supposed delay in the ombudsman's investigation proceeding was “vexatious, capricious and oppressive”.

The Third Division pointed out that since the 2004 fertilizer fund scam “involved numerous transactions and were allegedly committed in the different regions in the country”, investigators needed to go over voluminous transaction records. Thus, “the disposition of the complaint could not have been resolved with dispatch as ideally desired.”

“Indeed, even if the time spent by the Ombudsman in connection with its fact-finding investigation was factored in...the Court would still arrive at the same conclusion that there was no inordinate delay in theses cases,” the ruling penned by division chairman Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang read.

“The protection under the right to a speedy disposition of cases should not operate to deprive the government of its inherent prerogative in prosecuting criminal cases,” the court added.

The Rizal provincial government's purchase of fertilizer was supposedly part of the implementation of the Department of Agriculture's Ginintuang Masaganang Ani Program, which was later dubbed by the media as the fertilizer fund scam.

The program was originally aimed at extending assistance to poor farmers in the countrysides. Instead, P723 million worth of the program's fund was reportedly used as campaign kitty for the 2004 president bid of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The ombudsman had earlier cleared Arroyo of any involvement in the scam.