THE Office of the Ombudsman failed to prove that there was an activity to pocket an ill-gotten wealth of an amount not less than P50 million of the confidential intelligence fund of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
This was one of the bases cited by the Supreme Court (SC), hence, the plunder case against former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was dismissed for insufficiency of evidence.
The plunder case involves the alleged misuse of the P366-million confidential intelligence fund of the PCSO.
According to the decision of the SC, the pocketing of P50-million fund of the government is an important element for the prosecution to secure the conviction of the plunder case.
However, the SC said the Ombudsman did not present a witness to show that the PCSO fund was pocketed, and that, there was also no evidence to prove that the part of the confidential intelligence fund of the PCSO went to the pockets of Ms. Arroyo or her co-accused former PCSO budget and accounts manager Benigno Aguas and former PCSO general manager Rosario Uriarte.
The SC added that the Ombudsman also failed to prove the “conspiracy” between the three accused.
The “OK” marginal note of Ms. Arroyo in the request for the additional confidential and intelligence fund of Uriarte, the SC said, was not sufficient evidence to say that the former President conspired to commit the plunder.
The SC noted that the writing marginal notes is a usual, legal and valid practice of approving the release of fund, and it has no relation to the alleged crime.
The SC said the prosecution also did not cite the “main plunderer” or to whom the accused principally conspired with to pocket the ill-gotten wealth.
Former Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Edilberto Sandoval said the plan of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales to appeal the ruling of the Supreme Court would be a waste of time.
Sandoval said Morales has to accept the SC ruling being a former member of the High Tribunal.
Morales said that they were into another case build-up allegedly to bring the former chief executive back to jail.
Sandoval said Morales should learn to respect the Supreme Court ruling and just focus on how to make Mrs. Arroyo accountable for her other alleged crimes.
“Just accept the decision. The Supreme Court has spoken. Regardless of our convictions and what we feel about the case, we should bow to the SC,” he said.
He added the decision must have hurt Morales’s ego considering that she and her prosecutors had been confident all along that Ms. Arroyo took part in the embezzlement of P366 million in intelligence funds of the PCSO from 2008 to 2010.
A day after the SC handed down its decision, a combative Morales faced the media and said her office was studying the possibility of filing an appeal.
However, the odds of getting a reversal appeared to be slim with only four out of the 15-person SC backing Ms. Arroyo’s trial at the Sandiganbayan, according to Sandoval.
“With 11 justices against four, it is second to impossible,” he said.
Arroyo’s legal woes are not yet over though. She is still facing graft cases over the scuttled NBN-ZTE deal and investigation by the Ombudsman regarding the P57 million worth of intelligence funds Ms. Arroyo approved for the use of PCSO from 2004 to 2007.
Morales said the plunder and malversation complaints on the PCSO issue were under preliminary investigation stage.
The Ombudsman allayed concerns of double jeopardy, noting the probe covered an earlier period involving the intelligence funds. (pna)
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