The Sandiganbayan First Division has postponed the issuance of a warrant of arrest against North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza for the graft case concerning the alleged anomalous procurement of P2.4 million worth of diesel fuel.
“We never received a copy of the Honorable Court’s ruling. That was why we still filed our motion for judicial determination of probable cause,” Mendoza’s counsel, Thea Daep, said Thursday.
The anti-graft court, in its April 18 resolution, ordered the issuance of warrant of arrest against Mendoza after it found sufficient ground to hold her on trial for the case.
Mendoza is facing three counts of violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act after the Office of the Ombudsman filed last month the cases against her.
In 2010, Mendoza was said to have approved the release of P2.4 million from the provincial funds to pay for 49,526.72 liters of fuel used for one road grader and four dump trucks supposedly used for two-day road rehabilitation projects in the province.
The Ombudsman said no public bidding was conducted for the purchase of the fuel.
Instead, Mendoza allegedly directly contracted the Taliño Shell Station, a fuel station owned by her mother.
Apart from the graft case, Mendoza is also being held liable for the April 1 Kidapawan Massacre.
In response to Daep, state prosecutor Raymundo Julio Olaguer argued that the First Division should no longer consider Mendoza’s motion as it is already rendered moot. The court had ruled that there was probable cause to go on trial.
Daep then asked to the justices to treat their motion as an appeal to the court’s ruling.
First Division chairman Associate Justice Efren dela Cruz granted Daep’s request and ordered the prosecution to submit a written comment on the motion within 10 days.
The court asked Mendoza’s camp, was asked to reply to the prosecution’s comment in five days. After which, Mendoza’s earlier motion, now adopted by the court as a motion for reconsideration, will be deemed submitted for resolution.
“In the meantime, pending the resolution of the accused’s motion for reconsideration on the court’s ruling finding probable cause, the issuance of warrant of arrest is hereby deferred,” Dela Cruz said.
In her motion for judicial determination of probable cause dated April 19, Mendoza asked for the dismissal of the cases claiming that the Ombudsman failed to established her bad faith in approving the questioned transactions.