Ex-Palawan governor questions case before SC

MANILA, Philippines -  The camp of former Palawan governor Joel Reyes has vowed to bring to the Supreme Court (SC) what he claimed is a political persecution against him.

Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, counsel for Reyes, said they would question before the high court the graft charges filed against his client that led to an order of the Sandiganbayan for his arrest last week.

“The same set of charges had been previously dismissed by another division of the Sandiganbayan on the ground of lack of solid evidence,” Topacio told reporters at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

He was referring to the arrest warrant issued by the anti-graft court’s third division that stemmed from a complaint lodged in 2008 by a certain Fernando Santos, a member of a Manila-based non-government organization, who accused Reyes of violating the small-scale mining law in connection with the mining operation of Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC). The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) eventually sanctioned the company, which Reyes allegedly favored, for over-extraction of minerals.

Reyes was charged with violating Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, which was dismissed by the anti-graft court’s fifth division last year.

Topacio said they already filed a 20-page motion to quash, as he argued that entertaining the same charges will already constitute double jeopardy.

 “The revival of an already dismissed case via the present information is, therefore, like beating a dead horse, so to speak,” he said.