SC clears way for arrest, trial of ex-Budget usec

The Supreme Court has paved the way for the Sandiganbayan to proceed with the trial and enforce the warrant of arrest against former Budget Management Undersecretary Mario Relampagos and several other employees of the department, in connection with the multi-billion peso Priority Development Assistance Fund scam.

The SC’s Third Division upheld the ruling issued by the anti-graft court on  September 18, 2017, which denied the motion of Relampagos and his co-respondents  for the immediate dismissal of the two counts of graft and two counts of malversation of public funds filed against them for allegedly facilitating the disbursement of P9.3 million pork barrel funds intended for former Davao Del Sur Rep. Douglas Cagas.

The Sandiganbayan also junked  the respondents’ motion to hold in abeyance the issuance of warrants of arrest against them.

Apart from Cagas, Relampagos, the other respondents in the case are DBM employees Rosario Nunez, Lalaine Paule, and Marilou Bare.

The SC did not give credence to the claim of Relampagos and the other respondents that the Sandiganbayan committed grave abuse of discretion in finding probable cause  for the issuance of a warrant of arrest against them considering that the  Special Allotment Release Orders (SAROs), “which are indispensable in any government expenditure, and the Notice of Cash Allocations (NCAs) are prepared by the DBM Bureau-G and not by petitioners at the Office of the Undersecretary.

The petitioners claimed that the SAROs are forwarded to the DBM Secretary for signature and it is only in the absence of the DBM Secretary that the Undersecretary for Operations will sign the SARO.

However, the SC disagreed with the petitions.

It added that the petitioners failed to show proof that there  was a grave abuse of discretion on the part of the Sandigabayan in finding probable cause for the issuance of warrants of arrest against them.