Pleyto: PAGC ruling a ‘patent nullity’

The Aug. 29 order of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) dismissing Public Works and Highways Undersecretary Salvador Pleyto from government service was a "patent nullity," his lawyer said yesterday.

"The PAGC resolution is a patent nullity for having been issued in gross disregard of Executive Order 12," former congressman Roan Libarios said, referring to the PAGC charter, where Section 2 provides that "majority of the members of the commission shall be members of the Philippine Bar."

PAGC chairwoman Constancia de Guzman and commissioner Teresita Baltazar, who were signatories to the dismissal order, are not lawyers.

Libarios also informed the Court of Appeals (CA), which issued a 60-day temporary restraining order stating Pleyto’s dismissal, that the PAGC officials violated their own rules when they handed down the administrative sanctions.

He cited Section 4 of PAGC charter which provides that "administrative complaints involving a presidential appointee with the position of undersecretary or higher shall be conducted or heard by the commission en banc."

"The dismissal is too unjust and severe a penalty considering that the failure to file statement of assets and liabilities (SAL) is only punishable by suspension for the first offense," Libarios said.

Libarios was one of the prosecutors of ousted President Joseph Estrada during Estrada’s impeachment trial in the Senate.

"Thus, the findings of PAGC, even if sustained by Office of the President (OP), cannot be treated as final and conclusive as to preclude the right of Pleyto to elevate the judgment of the CA for appropriate review as provided by the rules," he added.

On Thursday, the appellate court directed the OP to temporarily hold back the enforcement of the dismissal order the PAGC made against Pleyto.

The CA’s first division prevented Malacañang from implementing the PAGC’s dismissal order against Pleyto, who purportedly failed the government’s lifestyle check. — Delon Porcalla