Ex-agri chief asks Sandigan to dismiss plunder case

MANILA, Philippines - Former Agriculture Secretary Luis Ramon “Cito” Lorenzo Jr. has asked the Sandiganbayan to dismiss the plunder case against him in connection with the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

His lawyers also asked the anti-graft court’s Second Division not to give the prosecution more time to present additional evidence to show that he and his co-accused, including former Agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante, had committed plunder.

Bolante was alleged to have arranged the diversion of fertilizer funds to the 2004 campaign kitty of former president and now Pampanga congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The court on Aug. 15 issued a resolution ordering the prosecution to provide additional evidence within 60 days from receipt of the order.

Lorenzo’s lawyers said even the court had declared in its resolution that it “could already order the dismissal of the present case.” 

“The case must be dismissed, and it must be dismissed now,” they said.

The lawyers said the court “ought not to prolong accused Lorenzos suffering any longer by giving the Office of the Ombudsman an unwarranted 60-day period to fish for new evidence.”

“The proper course of action for the prosecution would be to file cases appropriate to the said ‘fraud and irregularity,’ and not to insist on the ill-conceived and baseless plunder charge,” they pointed out.

“Since this Honorable Court found no allegation and no proof for the elements of plunder, it should have dismissed the subject information for plunder,” the lawyers said.

They said the ombudsman had ample information to determine if there was probable case for plunder against Lorenzo, citing a Commission on Audit report as well as data gathered from a Senate probe on the matter.

“This case had already been attended with so much delay that prolonging it further would already be violative of the accused’s constitutional rights,” they said.