Graft case vs Palawan governor remanded to Ombudsman

Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes expressed relief yesterday over the decision of the Sandiganbayan suspending the proceedings of the graft case filed against him and remanding it to the Office of the Ombudsman for re-investigation.

Reyes, through his lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, told reporters that the Sandiganbayan, in open court, granted their petition to suspend all proceedings and return the case to the Ombudsman for a new preliminary investigation.

“I was relieved by the decision of the Sandiganbayan upholding my right to due process,” Reyes told Topacio in a phone conversation.

The Palawan governor, together with Andronico Baguyo, technical secretariat chief of the Provincial Mining Regulatory Board, was accused of violating the anti-graft law for giving undue favor to a small-scale mining firm, Platinum Group Metals Company.

Reyes and Baguyo allegedly issued permits to the company to extract mineral ore beyond the allowable limit under the small-scale mining law.

Topacio alleged that Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro  “improvidently took over the preliminary investigation” from the Office of the Ombudsman for Luzon, which has jurisdiction over the case.

“With Casimiro approving his own resolution as acting Ombudsman and his bypassing Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio in filing the information directly to the Sandiganbayan, and by filing the information in violation of an Ombudsman order which mandates a waiting period of 35 days, thus Reyes was deprived of his chance to file a motion for consideration,” Topacio said.