Ex-agriculture chief seeks dismissal of P15.8-million car plan raps

MANILA, Philippines — After he was recently cleared of graft and malversation cases in connection with the pork barrel scam, former agriculture secretary and incumbent Bohol Rep. Arthur Yap has asked the Sandiganbayan to also junk his cases over the alleged anomalous P15.8-million car plan for employees of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).

In his 20-page motion to quash filed before the court's Sixth Division, Yap cited the Office of the Ombudsman's “inordinate delay” in its investigation in seeking the dismissal of his two counts of violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Filed by the ombudsman just last month, the cases stemmed from Yap’s alleged participation in approving in 2009 a hold-out agreement (HOA) that allowed 10 employees of PhilRice to obtain loans totaling P15.780 million from Philippine National Bank (PNB) for the purchase of their rent-to-own cars.

Yap was the then secretary of the Department of Agriculture and board chairman of PhilRice. 

The ombudsman said the deal was approved without holding any public bidding and with the PhilRice beneficiary-employees “being still entitled to transportation allowance despite the use of the official vehicles.”

In its motion, Yap, through his lawyers, said the ombudsman has already lost its authority to file the cases when it took the agency more than six years to finish its investigation.

Yap pointed out the complaint against him and his co-accused PhilRice officials was filed at the ombudsman on July 4, 2011 and yet it took the agency more than five years or until Nov. 2, 2016 to issue a resolution finding probable to file the cases in court.

Yap said he filed an appeal on the resolution on Feb. 6, 2017 and it took the ombudsman almost half a year or until Aug. 7, 2017 to deny it.

The cases were formally filed before the Sandiganbayan on Jan. 16.

Yap said he had no participation in the alleged crime as even the ombudsman's own records show that he was not present when PhilRice held its 54th meeting, during which the car plan and its guidelines were discussed and approved.

Yap lamented that the ombudsman, during its preliminary investigation, dropped the name of PhilRice employee Remedios de Leon, as among the respondents in the complaint as she was absent during the PhilRice 54th Board of Trustees meeting. 

He said that despite his absence at the meeting, the charges against him were “unreasonably sustained.”

The Sixth Division is the same court that junked the graft and malversation cases against Yap in connection with his alleged participation in the supposed misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel of former Nueva Ecija congressman Rodolfo Antonino in 2007 amounting to P14.55 million.

The Sixth Division granted Yap's motion to dismiss the cases, citing ombudsman prosecutors' failure to justify why it took them more than seven years to finish the investigation and file the cases in court. 
Yap, however, is still facing cases before the Sandiganbayan’s Third Division in connection with

his alleged participation in the misuse of P62.63-million worth of PDAF of former Misamis Occidental congresswoman Marina Clarete from 2007 to 2009.