Raffle of graft cases vs Abalos, Neri postponed anew

MANILA, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan postponed again yesterday the scheduled raffle of the graft charges filed against former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos and Social Security System president Romulo Neri.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed charges against Abalos and Neri more than two weeks ago in connection with their alleged participation in the government’s anomalous contract with China’s ZTE Corp. for the national broadband network (NBN) project.

Abalos is accused of offering Neri a bribe in exchange for the approval of the contract, while Neri is accused of approving the NBN-ZTE deal despite knowledge of supposed irregularities in the contract.

The anti-graft court again deferred the raffling of the graft cases to a Sandiganbayan division because there are no other cases to raffle.

Under the rules, there has to be at least five cases to be raffled every Friday so that each of the five court divisions will get one case to handle.

Sandiganbayan executive clerk of court Renato Bocar said the Office of the Ombudsman has not filed any other case since May 28 other than those of Abalos and Neri.

He said the graft charges against the two are being treated as two separate cases because it is up to the prosecution to move for its consolidation.

The Office of the Ombudsman, through a special panel of investigators, recommended the filing of charges against Abalos and Neri, then director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), for violating Section 3(h) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.