MANILA, Philippines — Contractor Sarah Discaya, owner of St. Timothy Construction, and company president Maria Roma Rimando, along with eight officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Davao Occidental District Engineering Office, pleaded not guilty during their arraignment yesterday in Cebu.
The accused are facing charges of graft and malversation of public funds through falsification of commercial documents, in connection with the alleged P96.5-million ghost flood control project in Davao Occidental.
The DPWH officials are Rodrigo Larete, Michael Awa, Joel Lumogdang, Harold John Villaver, Jafael Faunillian, Josephine Valdez, Ranulfo Flores and Czar Ryan Ubungen.
Yesterday marked the defendants’ first physical court appearance before Judge Nelson Leyco of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 27 in Lapu-Lapu City. On Jan. 5, they appeared via online conference to present their motion to quash the charges.
They argued that Supreme Court Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) Circular No. 328-2025 – which orders the transfer of cases to an RTC in a judicial region other than where the accused holds office – does not apply to their case.
During the formal proceedings, Leyco said the motions submitted last week were denied, meaning the trial of all the accused will remain with RTC Branch 27 in Lapu-Lapu.
Prior to the arraignment, legal counsels for Discaya and the eight DPWH officials verbally manifested to defer the arraignment, saying they had only received yesterday the order denying their motions.
In an interview, Joseph Randi Torregosa, one of the legal counsels, said they strongly believe that the court in Lapu-Lapu City has no jurisdiction over the case. He said they are set to file a motion for reconsideration or a petition for certiorari.
“We will be moving forward without abandoning our remedies and even the court agreed with us,” Torregosa said.
Meanwhile, Rimando’s legal counsel, Cornelio Samaniego, did not seek to defer the arraignment but verbally presented a petition for bail and a motion to conduct an ocular inspection of the alleged “ghost” project in Davao.
Samaniego said the flood control project in Barangay Culaman, Jose Abad Santos, Davao Occidental was “built, existed and was erected.”
“We might as well have an ocular inspection so we can see, because we are wasting time here when the project is actually there,” he said, noting that St. Timothy Construction would shoulder all the expenses.
Torregosa, meanwhile, said he and other legal counsels for the accused will also be filing their own petitions for bail.
The court also imposed preventive suspension against seven DPWH officials in connection with the alleged violation of RA 3019.
Lumogdang was exempted from the ruling as he retired last year.
Pre-trial has been set for Feb. 3.
Not guilty, really?
Meanwhile, Akbayan party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña expressed his disbelief over the “not guilty” plea entered by Discaya and her co-accused yesterday.
“So, not guilty, really? But her British accent is as fake as their flood control projects in Davao Occidental,” he said in a statement.
“She already pointed to her cohorts at the Blue Ribbon. She already admitted the anomaly. Not guilty? The projects were not even started. They are fooling us here,” Cendaña said.
Asset recovery
On the other hand, the multi-agency team formed by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure is ramping up its asset recovery efforts even as the ICI faces a leadership vacuum with the exit of its two commissioners.
Renato Paraiso, acting executive director of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center and chairman of the ICI asset recovery technical working group (TWG), said member agencies have agreed to establish an asset recovery case management dashboard system.
“The dashboard will show the total universe of the assets for recovery, including those already recovered and frozen, as well as those that are still pending,” Paraiso told The STAR in a phone interview.
Agencies with registration, regulatory and supervisory authority over monetary, real estate and movable assets will be onboarded into the dashboard system to ensure inter-agency alignment on assets that have already been frozen and/or recovered, as well as those for which further action is required.
This will also assist the TWG in determining how best to utilize the respective mandates and powers of its member agencies. — Mark Ernest Villeza, Jose Rodel Clapano, Rainier Allan Ronda