One of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials indicted for the alleged P289 million substandard road dike project in Oriental Mindoro pleaded not guilty when arraigned at the Sandiganbayan on Tuesday.
Juliet Calvo, maintenance division chief of the DPWH Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) office, formally denied the graft charge leveled against her.
Calvo was in handcuffs when presented before the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division chairperson, Associate Justice Zaldy Trespeses, who presided over the arraignment. She appeared with her legal counsel Juanito Lim Jr., who is also representing six other co-accused DPWH officials in the same case.
Lim revealed on Tuesday that his seven clients have all been ordered suspended by the Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, owing to pending administrative charges against them involving the same flood control case.
Aside from graft, the seven are also facing malversation charges together with former Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, the alleged beneficial owner of Sunwest Corporation and builder of the allegedly substandard flood control project in Oriental Mindoro.
Calvo initially posted bail amounting to P90,000 for her temporary liberty. She was later detained because Ombudsman prosecutors amended the information to include her in the malversation case in the same flood control project, which is a non-bailable offense.
The six other DPWH officials namely assistant regional directors Gene Ryan Altea and Ruben D.S. Santos, planning and design division OIC-chief Montrexis Tamayo, construction division chief and Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) chairperson Dominic Serrano, quality assurance and hydrology division OIC-chief and BAC regular member Dennis Abagon, and accountant Lerma Cayco also pled not guilty of the similar offenses.
