Justices handling Garcia plea may need to pass on task

MANILA, Philippines - Unless they can finish the job in 10 working days, the Sandiganbayan justices handling the case of accused plunderer and former military comptroller Carlos Garcia may have to relinquish the task to a new set of magistrates.

Presiding Justice Edilberto Sandoval, who currently chairs the Second Division, is set to retire on June 17 or three days ahead of his actual retirement date on June 20, a special non-working holiday marking the 150th birth anniversary of Jose Rizal. Rizal’s birth anniversary is on June 19 which is a Sunday.

Sandoval, Associate Justices Teresita Diaz-Baldos and Samuel Martires are deliberating on the 124-page consolidated motion for reconsideration filed by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) questioning the plea bargaining deal between Garcia and state prosecutors. A hearing on the motion is scheduled on June 3.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor, which approved the plea bargain deal, is expected to be given at least five days to comment on the motion.

In accordance with the Internal Rules of the Sandiganbayan, Diaz-Baldos – after Sandoval’s retirement – will become the new chair of the second division, being its most senior regular member.

Martires, who is only serving as special member because he actually belongs to the Third Division, may end up being replaced by Associate Justice Napoleon Inoturan.

Newly-appointed Associate Justice Oscar Herrera Jr., a former regional trial court judge from Malolos, Bulacan, is likely to become a regular member of the Second Division.

But sources said Inoturan might inhibit from the Garcia case because he had been an assistant solicitor general.

Sources also said Diaz-Baldos may move to have Martires stay as a special member of the Second Division but only to exclusively handle the Garcia case as he has been involved in the case from the very beginning.

The controversial plea bargain deal allows Garcia to surrender more than P130 million of the P300 million he allegedly plundered in exchange for the dropping of the plunder case. Under the deal, Garcia has been allowed to post bail for lesser offenses of direct bribery and money laundering. The Sandiganbayan approved the deal on May 9.

Sandoval, Martires, and Diaz-Baldos explained that approving the deal was better than having Garcia acquitted for lack of evidence, and with government recovering not a single centavo.