Padaca: I can only be impeached

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Grace Padaca is asking the Sandiganbayan to junk the graft and malversation charges filed against her by the Office of the Ombudsman on the grounds that she is now a constitutional official who can only be removed from her post through impeachment.

But in a telephone interview yesterday with The STAR, Padaca was quick to stress that she is not using her current position to evade the proceedings of the Sandiganbayan.

In an eight-page motion filed before the anti-graft court, the former governor of Isabela said the criminal complaint against her should be dismissed because allowing the proceedings of the case to continue “will be an impractical and futile exercise” for being contrary to law.

Padaca is facing graft and malversation charges for her alleged involvement in the grant of a P25-million rice program contract without a public bidding to a private firm in 2006.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed the criminal cases against her in July 2011 which resulted in the issuance of a warrant of arrest in May 2012.

However, Padaca, for five straight months, was never arrested until President Aquino himself paid for her bail bond of P70,000 on Oct. 4, just two days after her appointment as Comelec commissioner was announced.

To show the present administration’s support for her, then newly appointed Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas even accompanied her at the Sandiganbayan.

Padaca, citing constitutional provisions stating that she may only be removed from her current position through impeachment, said one of the penalties for graft and malversation is perpetual disqualification from public office.

“Clearly, if the cases before this Honorable Court proceed, and accused Padaca is convicted of one or both of the crimes charged, she will be removed from her position as commissioner of the Comelec (and disqualified from holding further office) without going through the impeachment process,” her motion to dismiss or suspend proceedings read.

“This will clearly run counter to the Constitution and settled jurisprudence,” Padaca, through her lawyers from the Angara Abello Concepcion Regala and Cruz (ACCRA) Law Office, said.

Padaca, whose cases stemmed from alleged offenses committed before she was appointed as Comelec commissioner, said the Sandiganbayan, as an alternative, may also suspend proceedings “until impeachment proceedings against her have been commenced and terminated.”

Padaca was conditionally arraigned earlier this week so her request for travel clearance could be granted by the anti-graft court, which also ordered her to post a travel bond of P140,000.

She is scheduled to leave the country today to attend the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) program on the United States elections in Washington scheduled from Nov. 4 to 7.

Padaca, questioning her indictment, has also filed a petition before the Supreme Court asking it to junk the criminal cases filed by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Unfair

Meanwhile, Padaca said the tweets boasting about her immunity from lawsuits being a Comelec commissioner did not come from her.

“I never said those words, I don’t know where those came from. It’s really unfair,” she said.

Padaca said the argument she used in her petition was brought up by Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes, who cited the cases of former Comelec chairman Alfredo Benipayo and former commissioners Resurreccion Borra and Florentino Tuason.

The constitutionality of the poll officials’ appointment to the Comelec was questioned before the Supreme Court by a certain Ma. Angelina Matibag but they were not made to step down because of the same provision cited by Padaca. – With Sheila Crisostomo