Palace hits haste in granting Garcia bail

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang dared the Sandiganbayan yesterday to explain its decision to grant “in undue haste” the bail petition of Garcia.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the Office of the Solicitor General and the Malacañang legal team are studying the possible courses of action in the Garcia case before the anti-graft court.

“Hopefully we can convince the Sandiganbayan, if ever we decide to intervene, why the plea bargaining should not go forward,” he said

Lacierda, a lawyer, said the three-day rule to hear the petition for bail should have been followed.

“As a lawyer, there is a three-day notice rule that you set the case for hearing, you set the case for bail and then you should allow the other party to respond or comment on the petition for bail. So that’s why we wanted (to know) why it was issued in undue haste,” he said.

The palace spokesman also said the aggrieved parties –the state, the Armed Forces of the Philippines –should have been consulted both in the plea bargaining and the bail petition.

He said the injured parties should have been allowed to answer or file their comments.

Lacierda said as regards the whole case, Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz was still studying the “voluminous” documents.

“That’s why we are going to study the case very thoroughly and hopefully at the soonest possible time, we can file, they may decide,” he said.

“He (Cadiz) will recommend some courses of action to the President.”

Lacierda said it would be up to the Malacañang legal team to act on the alleged irregularities involving the Sandiganbayan and the special prosecutors who handled the plea bargaining agreement of Garcia.

“I would have to leave that to the Office of the Solicitor General and to our legal team to discuss if ever these anomalies are proven to have happened, and we will ensure that the proper remedies will be sought,” he said.