Sandigan approves Garcia plea bargain

MANILA, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan approved yesterday the plea bargain deal between state prosecutors and accused plunderer and former military comptroller Carlos Garcia.

In a 22-page resolution, the anti-graft court’s second division cited the “weak” evidence presented by prosecutors in its decision to approve the controversial deal.

“After assessing the totality of the testimonial and documentary evidence presented by the prosecution, the Court has found the same to be weak in order to support the allegations contained in the equally weak information for plunder. Suffice it to say that the evidence presented by the prosecution is not enough to convict accused General Garcia of plunder,” the Sandiganbayan’s resolution read.

Associate Justice Teresita Diaz-Baldos penned the ruling.

“Inasmuch as the provisions of the plea bargaining agreement and the concerns of this Court about the protection of the government has been already fully addressed, there is no reason why this Court should withhold approval of the plea bargaining agreement in these cases,” it added.

The deal allows Garcia to surrender P135.4 million of the more than P300 million he allegedly plundered in exchange for the dropping of the plunder case in favor of lesser offenses of direct bribery and money laundering.

The anti-graft court also junked a motion for intervention filed by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG).

In two separate resolutions, the Sandiganbayan lengthily discussed how it had to choose between only two options – acquit Garcia and lose everything or approve the plea bargaining agreement and allow the government to recover millions in alleged unexplained wealth, including valuable properties in the United States.

The Sandiganbayan ruling also said the testimony of former auditor and now Commission on Audit (COA) Commissioner Heidi Mendoza was based on “suspicions, innuendos, and unsupported allegations of fraud... that are not supported by proof to buttress her claim.”

Solicitor General Joel Cadiz said they would appeal the Sandiganbayan ruling.

Magistrates of the anti-graft court’s second division likewise denounced how critics, “with feigned innocence,” muddled the issues surrounding the plea bargaining agreement.

“From the altered and baseless comments on the true facts and circumstances of the plea bargaining agreement, public opinion snowballed,” they said. “While the court is used to be at the center of conflicting interests, and to be the object of criticism from the losing parties, we have never seen such distortions and prevarications of the facts from people who are expected to be the sentinels of the rule of law,” they added.

“Suddenly, the age-long struggle of the people against graft and corruption was strongly awakened. The distressed man on the street was jolted and vehemently protested, with the accused General Garcia as the specific target,” the ruling read.

“The media became the easy tool to express the sentiments of those who, despite their lack of knowledge about the facts, courageously talked about the plea bargaining agreement. The accused became the epitome of a corrupt military officer. The faceless ‘corrupt big fish’ that the people ‘stalked’ and waited to be brought to court and be convicted suddenly took its form. Against this backdrop of a misinterpreted ‘strong evidence doctrine,’ the accused was judged guilty not by the court but by public opinion,” the Sandiganbayan said.

They said the prosecution – aside from Mendoza’s testimony – had nothing to show but the handwritten letter and statement of Garcia’s wife Clarita, which cannot be used against her own husband and their children.

Motion for reconsideration

Cadiz said they would file a motion for reconsideration after receiving a copy of the Sandiganbayan ruling.

“It’s a wrong decision. The Sandiganbayan should have allowed us to intervene and it should have voided the plea bargaining agreement which it approved on May 4, 2010,” he lamented.

“There should have been an independent assessment of the agreement. And that we will again question before the Sandiganbayan,” he explained.

Cadiz said they want the anti-graft court to explain why it had pre-judged the case by siding with the position that the plunder case against Garcia was doomed to fail.

“Well, all is not lost because there are remedies under the law. The OSG can always elevate the matter either to the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court,” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima told reporters at the Villamor Air Base, where she and several Cabinet members welcomed President Aquino upon his arrival from the ASEAN summit in Indonesia.

She said the proper procedure might be filing a motion for reconsideration with the second division of the Sandiganbayan, although she would still have to discuss the matter with the OSG.

“Well, that’s (Sandiganbayan ruling) a disappointing development because there are many substantive points and arguments raised by the OSG in asking for the revocation of the plea bargaining agreement,” she said. “The Ombudsman has just resigned and then we have this resolution from the Sandiganbayan.”

The military, for its part, said it would seek guidance from the OSG for its next move.

“We will be coordinating closely with the Office of the Solicitor General and get guidance from them,” Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Commodore Miguel Rodriguez said in a text message.

He said the AFP has yet to receive a copy of the Sandiganbayan ruling.

“We cannot say what we are we are going to do until we’ve seen the document. We are getting information from the media but the Sandiganbayan has not given us any official information,” the AFP spokesman said.

He said AFP Judge Advocate-General Brig. Gen. Gilberto Jose Roa has requested for a copy of the ruling.

“Definitely, we are very interested to know what happened. We want to be able to study it so that we can (determine) what legal remedies are available to us,” Rodriguez said.

Sen. Franklin Drilon said an appeal is best brought up to the Supreme Court (SC).

“Now, the remedy of government is to bring it to the Supreme Court and ask the SC to void the agreement,” Drilon said in a press conference.

“So, I would urge the Solgen (Solicitor General) to bring this up to the SC. I have read the motion of intervention of the Solgen and there is merit to the contention to the ground that they have asserted, including the fact that no consent was given by the DOJ and the Solgen particularly on this issue,” Drilon said.

Drilon said the Solgen may use the records of the Senate inquiries in bolstering its case against the plea bargaining deal.

“I am totally disappointed at the Sandiganbayan’s approving the plea bargaining agreement. But I am not surprised,” Drilon said.

He said he knew it was coming when the Sandiganbayan allowed Garcia to post bail. Plunder is a non-bailable offense.

“It only means that plunder has been withdrawn and this withdrawal is based on the terms of the compromise agreement,” said Drilon, justice secretary during the term of former president, the late Corazon Aquino.

“When they allowed Garcia to plead guilty on a lesser offense and granted him bail, in effect, they approved already the deal. I am not surprised but I am totally disappointed,” he said.

Drilon said the special prosecutors led by Wendell Sulit should resign for this fiasco. Drilon reiterated his call that the special prosecutors be held liable for negligence for failing to oppose of arraignment of Garcia for a lesser crime of direct bribery.

“In other words, the government should not be prejudiced by the incompetence of the special prosecutors in failing to oppose the arraignment for a lesser offense of Gen. Carlos Garcia. The principle in law, the state cannot be bound by the incompetence of its agents,” Drilon said.

Sen. Francis Escudero, for his part, said Garcia’s alleged crime had also compromised the AFP as an institution and endangered the lives of ordinary foot soldiers. “The magnitude of Garcia’s trespasses against foot soldiers and against every tax-paying Filipino cannot be discounted just like that,” he said.

“He belongs in jail, both him and the likes of Gen. Ligot who raped not only the military coffer but its system even more,” Escudero said.

Escudero, chairman of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, said the DOJ and the next Ombudsman should pursue the case based on the evidence gathered during Senate inquiries.

“I am extremely disappointed with this decision. I, together with 83 percent Filipinos surveyed by Pulse Asia, strongly believe that they should be tried and be made to pay for their crimes,” Escudero said.

Escudero maintained that Garcia is in no position to offer in a compromise deal any amount whose source he cannot explain.

“Again, what are we really after? Prosecute and send thieves to jail as a way of telling those with evil intents that we mean business in implementing the letters of our laws or recover money, no matter how minuscule it is. We have to draw the line as to what our priority is,” Escudero explained.

“It is clear that based on the hearings of the committee on justice, the Garcia plea bargaining agreement is highly irregular,” Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. said.

“For the Sandiganbayan to approve the Garcia deal is a highly questionable action,” he said.

Rep. Roilo Golez, a former Navy officer, said the Sandigan decision sets a bad precedent.

“Poor AFP, poor Republic of the Philippines. The Sandigan may have just instituted a net profit system for graft and corruption. Rake in a lot, surrender a little, charge some incidental expenses, take the net profit, declare profit sharing, and live happily ever after,” he said. – Christina Mendez, Delon Porcalla, Edu Punay, Alexis Romero, Jess Diaz