THE Court of Appeals has paved the way for the reinstatement of Wendell Barreras-Sulit to her post as special prosecutor of the Office of the Ombudsman, three years after her removal for approving the plea bargain deal in the plunder case involving retired military comptroller Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia in 2010.
In a two-page resolution, the CA’s Special Tenth Division upheld its earlier decision reversing the dismissal order issued against Sulit by the Office of the President during the Aquino administration in 2013.
The appellate court made the ruling after the Office of the Solicitor General withdrew its motion for reconsideration, thereby leaving its earlier decision unchallenged.
The CA, through Associate Justice Zenaida Galapate-Laguilles, granted the petition of Sulit and found that the OP in the previous administration erred in dismissing her from government service in the administrative case.
The appellate court turned down the findings of the OP that Sulit’s approval of the plea bargain agreement with Garcia was unlawful.
According to the CA, the deal was approved by the Sandiganbayan, making it aboveboard and within the process mandated by law.
The CA held the Palace’s administrative penalty on Sulit and review of her action was actually an encroachment of judicial power of the anti-graft court.
The appellate court stressed that Malacañang has no authority to determine whether or not the evidence presented before the Sandiganbayan was strong to sustain a conviction.
“The act of the OP [Office of the President] in determining the probative value of the evidence presented in the cases of plunder and money laundering in this administrative proceedings is not only misplaced and uncalled for but also constitutes and encroachment of judicial power. The authority rests solely upon the appropriate court—the Sandiganbayan in this case,” the CA decision stated.
The CA said the findings of the Palace that Sulit was guilty of gross inexcusable negligence and bad faith in the performance of her function was “unfair” because “there was no substantial evidence that she was remiss in protecting the interest of the state.”
Sulit was supposed to have a fixed term of seven years like the Ombudsman, but her term was cut to three years when she was dismissed in July 2013.
The ousted Special Prosecutor filed an earlier petition questioning the administrative proceedings before the OP, which was junked by the CA’s eighth division in August 2013.
Under the controversial plea bargain deal, Garcia pleaded guilty to the lesser offenses of money laundering and direct bribery, and agreed to return P135 million of the more than P300 million in public funds he allegedly amassed.
Former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez resigned from her post in 2011 due to mounting pressure also over the Garcia plea bargaining agreement.