No frying, just walking free

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

11/25/2008

As predicted, the Sandiganbayan dismissed the case against former Justice Secretary Hernando Perez, his wife, his brother-in-law and Gloria Arroyo’s fund-raiser, Ernest Escaler.

But get this: Sandiganbayan Justice Edilberto Sandoval, in dismissing the case, cited “inordinate delay” of the Ombudsman in charging Perez et al., as he claimed this to be a violation of Perez’ constitutional rights.

He then went on to quash the Ombudsman’s information against Perez et al. on graft charges.

Expect to see the justice elevated to the Supreme Court soon, for he shall ne richly rewarded.

It is usually not a practice of our judges and justices to simply agree to quash cases, especially in graft and corruption cases and one involving a high profile personality.

Quashing the case means that the prosecutors haven’t even started to present their case and evidence.

And even as the prosecutor rests, and the defense seeks a demurrer, which is the equivalent of the defense seeking a dismissal of the case usually on grounds that the prosecution failed to prove its charges against the accused, the judge and justices hardly ever ageres to the defense’s petition, prefering a full-blown trial.

Ah, but Perez is a Malacañang-protected species. And it is clear that the Ombudsman, if she were truly impartial and independent, would have immediately worked on the Perez case and elevated it to the the Sandiganbayan.

For that matter, even Merceditas Gutierrez’ predecessor, Simeon Marcelo, certainly sat on the Perez case for a long time running, not even doing anything about it despite the big haul of strong evidence of plunder, not to mention money laundering evidence.

It is no secret that Marcelo, who was given by the Swiss authorities and the Coutts Bank of Hong Kong the evidence which surely would have pinned them all on plunder, immediately sent Gloria copies of the evidence, evidently awaiting her orders on what to do with Perez et al. And as evidently the order was not to touch the former Justice secretary, Marcelo did nothing to get the case moving.

And to think that Marcelo is supposed to a consultant to an international body on anti-corruption!

With Gutierrez now sitting as Ombudsman, and with public pressure building up, what she does is to wait for the complainant, Mark Jimenez, to withdraw his complaint, which then made the case weak, apart from the fact that, instead of plunder, she comes up with the graft and robbery charges, to make sure that this would be an bailable offense. Besides, it was already a forgone conclusion that once the cases are elevated before the Sandiganbayan, this would promptly be dismissed.

It can’t be risked to get the prosecutors to present evidence, because those pieces of evidence would already reflect the corruption involved, not to mention plunder, since the amount was well over the P50 million threshold and it was a series of acts — as it would have been shown, if the case were well presented, since the money traveled from the Caymans to New York to Hong Kong, and finally to Switzerland, along with a Special Power of Attorney for Perez’ wife from Perez himself.

Besides, if Escaler’s bank account from where the money goes in and out, were checked, the paper trail would show just where the dirty money was traveling. Heck, it would have been found out that there was more than just Perez involved — and higher ups too.

But that was precisely what was being avoided, which is probably the reason the Sandiganbayan court quickly agreed to the quashing of the case.

From the start, it was already clear that Sandoval would be dismissing the Perez cases he was handling. And boyoboy. Sandoval is so concerned about violations of one’s constitutional rights on the matter of years that the case was not charged?

In the robbery case against Perez, for instance, he already was stating openly that the case had no chance to prosper.

But think about it too. Why on earth would Gutierrez, who was appointed by Gloria and Mike to ensure that they and their allies are protected, have filed a robbery case against Perez, apart from waiting until Jimenez issued an affidavit of desistance?

Why not, when the intent from the start, was to ensure that another Gloria fish would walk?

Back to top

For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph
The Daily Tribune © 2006