MANILA, Philippines – The Sandiganbayan has dismissed the perjury charge filed against Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) general manager Nereus Acosta and his mother in 2013.
In a ruling last week and made available to the media only yesterday, the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division decided to throw the case out by granting a demurrer to evidence filed by the respondents.
A demurrer is an objection filed against an opponent in a case to show that the evidence presented is not enough to sustain the case.
The perjury charge was filed by the Office of the Ombudsman against Acosta as a former lawmaker and his mother, Socorro, as a former mayor of Manolo Fortich town in Bukidnon.
It stemmed from their answer to a separate graft charge on the misuse of pork barrel funds filed against them.
The graft case is still pending before the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division and based on the alleged grant of financial assistance to the Bukidnon Vegetable Producers Cooperative from the lawmaker’s priority development assistance fund (PDAF).
Acosta and his mother claimed that the town council approved and concurred with the release of funds, a statement that turned out to be false when checked by the ombudsman, thus the filing of the perjury case.
However, the Sandiganbayan – in a ruling penned by Associate Justice Ma. Theresa Dolores Gomez-Estoesta – sided with the accused when it ruled that a concurrence or approval of the town council is not even needed or necessary in the release of the PDAF allotment.