Padaca pleads not guilty

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Grace Padaca and national broadband network (NBN) deal whistle-blower Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. pleaded not guilty to separate graft charges before the Sandiganbayan yesterday.

Padaca and Lozada also underwent conditional arraignments in order to be allowed to travel abroad.

The former governor was directed to post a travel bond of P140,000 for the graft and malversation charges she is facing before the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division.

Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said the poll body has not yet discussed the possibility of paying for Padaca’s bond so she could travel to the US.

“This is a case of first impression in the Comelec involving an incumbent commissioner who has a case in Sandiganbayan. This has to be studied carefully,” he said.

Lozada, on the other hand, was ordered to pay P180,000 for the two graft cases he is facing before the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division.

Padaca’s lawyer George Aquino said his client, whose P70,000 bail bond was shouldered by President Aquino, will personally shoulder the travel bond this time.

The former governor of Isabela is allowed to leave the country from Nov. 2 to 12 to attend the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) program about the US elections in Washington scheduled from Nov. 4 to 7.

Lozada, a Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) appointee as a board member of sequestered firm CocoGen Insurance, was granted a travel permit from Nov. 1 to 4 to Macau and Hong Kong for leisure time with family.

Both are required to report to the Sandiganbayan within five days after returning to the country to show compliance with the anti-graft court’s requirements and withdraw the travel bonds they posted.

Padaca agreed to be arraigned conditionally because she has a pending petition before the Supreme Court questioning her indictment for alleged misuse of public funds.

The case against her filed in July 2011 stems from the grant of a P25-million rice program contract without the conduct of public bidding in 2006 to the Economic Development for Western Isabela and Northern Luzon Foundation, Inc., a private entity. – Mayen Jaymalin