MANILA -- Citing the excessive delay in the prosecution, the Sandiganbayan has dismissed the graft case against former airport executives in Cebu over the alleged illegal purchase of an ultra-high frequency/frequency modulation (UHF/FM) repeater system amounting to PHP161,891 in 2005.
In a resolution dated Jan. 15, 2019, the anti-graft court's 2nd Division granted the motion to quash filed by former Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) executives Veronica Ordonez and lawyer Sigfrido Dublin on the ground of violation of their constitutional rights to speedy disposition of cases.
The court noted that it took the Office of the Ombudsman almost six years to act from the time the complaint was recommended provisionally dismissed and downgraded for fact-finding investigation.
“Clearly such delay in terminating such investigation run counter to the Ombudsman’s duty as mandated by the Constitution and considerably capricious and vexatious that warrants the dismissal of the instant case,” the court said.
“Interestingly, the instant case arose merely from a single transaction involving the purchase of one UHF/FM Repeater System amounting to PHP161,890.91, which would not even necessitate legal complexities nor involve voluminous records that would ultimately require an unreasonable length of time in resolving,” it added in its ruling.
Court records showed that the initial graft and ethics complaints was filed by lawyer Rogelio Yaun before the Ombudsman-Visayas against former MCIAA general manager Adelberto Yap, Ordonez and Dublin on May 11, 2006 for the allegedly onerous contract regarding the purchase of the repeater system.
Dublin and Ordonez filed their motion to quash information on Jan. 11, 2018. Yap filed his motion to dismiss on Jan. 24, 2018.
Yaun alleged that irregularities were committed in the purchase of the UHF/FM Repeater System, including the lack of justification for the re-canvass of the award, and deliberate misapplication of Section 5 of RA 9184, or the “Government Procurement Reform Act”.
The Ombudsman-Visayas, in a resolution dated Jan. 18, 2008, dismissed the graft case, ruling it found nothing anomalous regarding the purchase.
On Jan. 18, 2008 the Ombudsman dismissed the case against the accused for the purchase of the UHF/FM Repeater System.
Yaun filed a motion for reconsideration on Aug. 1, 2011 on the Ombudsman ruling.
It was only on Apr. 30, 2014 that the Ombudsman-Visayas filed another complaint against the accused for a graft case. (PNA)
