Sandigan drops case vs Kokoy

After 15 years, the Sandiganbayan dismissed yesterday 24 criminal charges filed against former ambassador Benjamin Romualdez by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), and sent them to the archives.

The anti-graft court ruled that the PCGG had no authority to indict Romualdez based on a 2002 decision of the Supreme Court.

In a single-page decision, Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, and Roland Jurado said the cases were dismissed because the Supreme Court ruling had become "final and executory" in November 2002.

"(The suits) are considered dismissed," read the Sandiganbayan decision.

The PCGG filed the cases against Romualdez in 1989 for his failure and refusal to file a statement of assets and liabilities for 24 years.

Government investigators believe that Romualdez acquired ill-gotten wealth when he was governor of Leyte from 1962 to 1985. – Delon Porcalla