Sandigan affirms graft raps vs Ampatuan

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has upheld its previous ruling to proceed with the trial of the criminal charges filed against former Maguindanao governor Sajid Ampatuan in connection with the allegedly anomalous procurement of palay and corn seeds as well as fertilizer amounting to P98.3 million.

In a resolution promulgated on July 30, the anti-graft court upheld its May 21 ruling, which denied Ampatuan’s motion to quash the charges of violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and malversation of public funds.

The court said Ampatuan failed to raise new grounds that would warrant the reversal of the ruling.

In a motion filed in May, Ampatuan insisted that the charges against him must be dismissed due to the supposed inordinate delay by the Office of the Ombudsman in investigating the cases.

Ampatuan said the delay violated his right to a speedy resolution of the cases. 

He said the ombudsman received a special audit report of the Commission on Audit (COA) concerning the questioned transactions in February 2014.

Ampatuan said it took the anti-graft investigators more than two years to evaluate the report and started the preliminary investigation only in August 2016.

The Sandiganbayan said the evaluation period for the audit report should not be counted as the start of the ombudsman’ s investigation of the questioned transaction.

It said Ampatuan failed to show proof that he was prejudiced by the supposed inordinate delay in the investigation.