THE Sandiganbayan has dismissed 11 counts of graft and five counts of estafa through falsification of public documents filed against a former Finance official linked to a P5.3-billion tax credit scam.
The anti-graft court’s First Division granted the motion for quashal of information filed by Uldarico Andutan Jr., former deputy executive director of the Department of Finance.
One of Andutan’s graft suit was dismissed for inordinate delay of the Office of the Ombudsman last month while the Sandiganbayan junked 10 counts of graft and five counts of estafa for the same ground.
Ombudsman prosecutors said the probe suffered delay due to the voluminous documents, and complex and extraordinary issues.
“These will not do… The right to speedy disposition of cases is enshrined in the Bill of Rights, the purpose of which is to protect he people against arbitrary and discriminatory use of political power,” the Sandiganbayan’s order read.
Andutan, along with ex-finance undersecretary Antonio Belicena, was accused of graft and estafa charges.
Andutan and Belicena were sued in the 2009 case involving P73-million tax credits granted to Filstar Textile Industrial Corp. Belicena headed the DoF’s One Stop Shop-Inter Agency Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center.