San Juan official suspended in gun deal

MANILA, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan has ordered the preventive suspension of the San Juan City government’s environment and natural resources chief in a technical malversation case over the alleged anomalies in the purchase of high-powered firearms in 2008.

In a four-page resolution dated March 2 and released yesterday, the anti-graft court’s Sixth Division said Dante Santiago’s 90-day preventive suspension is mandatory under Section 13 of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and Book II of the Revised Penal Code (RPC).

The Sandiganbayan said that both RA 3019 and the RPC mandate the suspension of an incumbent officer charged with any offense involving “fraud upon government or public funds or property.”

Santiago is a co-accused of Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito in the technical malversation case.

Ejercito had earlier been suspended by the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division for a graft case in connection with the firearms purchase. The Sixth Division said it will no longer preventively suspend the senator for the technical malversation charge.

The Fifth Division, in December last year, dismissed the graft case against Ejercito and lifted the suspension order. The prosecution filed a motion for reconsideration but the court denied it last February.

The court said Santiago’s suspension aims to prevent him from “intimidating or influencing witnesses, tampering with documentary evidence or from committing further acts of malfeasance while in office.”

The court said since Santiago has already been arraigned, the information of the case against him is already deemed valid.

“Once the information is found to be sufficient in form and substance, it is the ministerial duty of the court to issue a preventive suspension order and there are no ifs and buts about it,” the ruling penned by division chairman Associate Justice Rodolfo Ponferrada read.

Associate Justices Oscar Herrera Jr. and Karl Miranda concurred with the ruling.

The court dismissed Santiago’s claim that he is no longer in a position to influence witnesses or to tamper evidence as he is now in a different office in the city government.

Santiago was a city councilor when the crime was allegedly committed.

The Office of the Ombudsman alleged that Santiago was among the members of the city council who approved a resolution allowing the purchase of P2.1 million worth of sub-machine guns in 2008 using the city government’s calamity fund. The firearms were purchased during Ejercito’s term as mayor.

The ombudsman, who filed the case early last year, said the calamity fund was used despite there being no state of calamity at that time.

The ombudsman also said that the purchase was done in haste without competitive bidding and examination of the supplier’s qualifications.