Bribery Charge: Sandigan finds enough evidence vs. Mary Ann

The Sandiganbayan has ruled that there is sufficient evidence to support a bribery charge against Cebu City Assistant Prosecutor Mary Ann Castro,  gmanews.tv reported yesterday.

In a 22-page resolution released June 30, the anti-graft court’s Third Division said Castro will have to face trial for allegedly receiving P10,000 payoff in connection with a drug case she was handling in 2002, the report said.

On January 25, 2002, Castro allegedly received an envelope containing P10,000 from the lawyer of drug suspect Nanan Gimenez for her to go slow on Gimenez’s application for bail.

The information on the alleged payoff came from a radio reporter who narrated the incident before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas.

The radio reporter, who was reportedly at the prosecutor’s office at the time of the accident, submitted to the anti-graft office his notes, which contained the serial numbers of the bills in the envelope.

Castro claimed she tried to return the money to the giver, whom she identified as lawyer Gines Abellana, but she failed to find him.

But the Sandiganbayan did not give much weight to Castro’s defense, noting that she admitted to two prosecution witnesses that she still held the money three days after Abellana, the counsel for Gimenez, allegedly left bribe money on her table.

“More importantly when (prosecution witness Romulo) Suarez took the witness stand, on May 12, 2005, the accused had confessed to him only the year before that the money was still in her possession. It can therefore be inferred that from the acts of the accused following the incident, she did not only receive the money with tacit approval but had likewise exhibited the intention of retaining it,” the Sandiganbayan said.

The Sandiganbayan further said Castro’s claim that she tried to turnover custody of the money to her superiors and the evidence custodian in her office were “matters of evidence that can be properly ventilated when the accused takes her turn to adduce evidence in her behalf.”

Castro’s lawyer, Antonio Bacalso, told The FREEMAN yesterday that they have not yet received a copy of Sandiganbayan’s resolution. He said they would not comment on the matter until a formal copy reaches them.  — Joeberth M. Ocao/LPM