Ang pays P25 M under plea deal

Businessman Charlie "Atong" Ang has paid P25 million to the government as part of a plea-bargain agreement for him to plead guilty to a lesser offense to avoid the charges of plunder which ousted President Joseph Estrada has been facing since 2001.

Last Friday, Ang handed the Sandiganbayan six manager’s checks amounting to P25 million: two checks from Metrobank in the amount of P6 million and P7 million; two from Philtrust Bank totaling P4 million; one from Asia United Bank in the amount of P5 million; and one from Chinabank amounting to P3 million.

All the six checks were payable to the Sandiganbayan.

The P25 million represents the amount Ang was accused of pocketing from the P130 million tobacco excise tax intended for Ilocos Sur in 1998.

The anti-graft court’s special division ordered Ang to pay the government P25 million after he agreed to plead guilty to the lesser offense of corruption of public officials in relation to indirect bribery last month.

Ang’s lawyers said the admission of guilt to a lower offense and the payment of the P25 million is not an admission to committing plunder.

Ang was a co-accused of Estrada in his plunder case until he agreed to enter into a plea-bargain agreement with the government and reimburse the P25 million in exchange for being allowed to plead guilty to a lesser offense.

After pleading guilty to corruption of public officials in relation to indirect bribery, the special division sentenced Ang to a jail term of two years and four months to six years.

Ang filed a petition for probation immediately after the court handed down his sentence.

The prosecution did not oppose the petition for probation.

Ang also asked the Sandiganbayan to credit the more than five years he spent in a United States jail and the prison time he spent in the Philippines.

During yesterday’s hearing of Ang’s motion, Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta said the Revised Penal Code does not cover his detention in the United States.

Peralta said Ang’s case could not be considered an exception since the RP-US treaty does not include preventive imprisonment.

Nevertheless, the court required Ang’s lawyers to submit within five days a memorandum expounding their arguments, after which the motion will be deemed submitted for resolution.

Ang had earlier offered his property in Corinthian Gardens in Quezon City in exchange for the P25 million he allegedly took from the government.

But the Sandiganbayan rejected Ang’s offer and instead ordered him to pay the amount in cash.

Pending decision on his petition for probation, Ang will be detained at the Metro Manila District Jail in Taguig.

Ang was accused of helping Estrada amass over P4 billion in ill-gotten wealth, particularly in the alleged misappropriation of P130 million worth of tobacco excise taxes for Ilocos Sur.

He was also accused of helping Estrada set up an illegal gambling network.

Ang was extradited to the Philippines in November 2006.

He fled to the US before Estrada’s ouster in 2001.

Ang was arrested and detained in Las Vegas by US authorities in late 2001 after an extradition request from the Philippine government.