NATION | Sandigan junks graft, malversation cases vs ex-Palawan solon

The cases stemmed from former Palawan Rep. Abraham Kahlil Mitra's alleged misuse of P3 million

worth of fertilizer fund under the Department of Agriculture's Farm Inputs and Farm Implements Program

during his term in 2004. File | By Elizabeth Marcelo/Philstar

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan Special First Division has dismissed the graft and malversation cases against former Palawan representative and incumbent Games and Amusement Board (GAB) Chairman Abraham Kahlil Mitra in connection with his alleged involvement in the 2004 fertilizer fund scam.

 

In an 11-page resolution promulgated on December 27, released to the media on Wednesday, the court granted the respective motions of Mitra and his four co-accused to dismiss the cases, citing the inordinate delay of the Office of the Ombudsman in conducting its probe.

 

“The motions to dismiss are impressed with merit. The Office of the Ombudsman committed inordinate, oppressive and unreasonable delay in the conduct of its preliminary investigation,” the ruling penned by division chairman Associate Justice Efren De La Cruz read.

 

Associate Justices Michael Frederick Musngi and Reynaldo Cruz concurred with the ruling.

 

Aside from the one count each of graft and malversation of public fund cases against Mitra, similar cases against Department of Agriculture (DA) Region IV former Executive Director Dennis Araullo, former regional legislative coordinator Lucille Odejar, regional accountant Raymundo Enriquez Braganza and private individual Margie Tajon-Luz of the non-government organization (NGO) GabayMasa Development Foundation Inc. were dismissed.

 

The cases stemmed from Mitra's alleged misuse of P3 million worth of fertilizer fund under the DA Farm Inputs and Farm Implements Program (FIFIP) during his term as the representative of the second district of Palawan in 2004.

 

The ombudsman, who filed the cases before the Sandiganbayan in September, said Mitra and the other respondents conspired to transfer the funds to GabayMasa despite the lack of public bidding and the NGO's supposed failure to submit reportorial requirements.

 

The DA's FIFIP, which was later dubbed by the media as the fertilizer fund scam, was originally aimed at extending assistance to poor farmers in the countryside. Instead, P723-million worth of funds from the program was reportedly used as campaign kitty for the 2004 presidential bid of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

 

In dismissing the charges, the anti-graft court said the ombudsman violated the constitutional right of the respondents to a speedy disposition of cases when it took the agency more than five years to finish its investigation on the complaint filed against them in April 2011.

 

“In failing to resolve the complaint with reasonable dispatch and prudence as directed by law and jurisprudence, the Office of the Ombudsman placed the accused in a tactical disadvantage and opened the possibility that their defense will be impaired,” the ruling read.

 

“Aside from the anxiety and unrest that came with a prolonged investigation, the availability of witnesses and documentary evidence to the accused was also affected considering that the subject transaction occurred in 2004 or about 12 years up to the filing of the [case] informations,” it added.