Ex-Cebu lawmaker, daughter plead not guilty to graft raps

MANILA, Philippines - Former Cebu congresswoman Clavel Martinez and her daughter Maria Cielo Martinez pleaded not guilty to charges of graft and malversation of public funds before the Sandiganbayan yesterday.

Assisted by their legal counsel, the Martinezes denied involvement in the alleged misuse of P11.5 million of the former lawmaker’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in 2002.

Martinez and her daughter appeared before the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division for arraignment after posting P40,000 bail each last week.

Former Bogo City mayor Celestino Martinez III, the former congresswoman’s son, is also a respondent in the case but he will be arraigned separately next week.

Magistrates of the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division headed by Associate Justice Roland Jurado opted to wait for the former mayor’s arraignment before scheduling a pre-trial conference to facilitate orderly proceedings.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed charges of graft and malversation of public funds against the three Martinizes in December 2012 along with other respondents.

Prosecutors allege that the former lawmaker, who was part of the House prosecution panel in the impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada, gave PDAF funds supposedly for the anti-illegal drugs campaign of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP) Cebu Council.

The money, according to the Office of the Ombudsman, was coursed through the Bogo municipal government, which then issued a Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) check payable to “GSP-Cebu/Treasurer” on Sept. 22, 2003.

But instead of depositing the check to GSP-Cebu’s account, GSP-Cebu cashier-designate Julieta Quiño allegedly had the Landbank’s Bogo branch replace it with a manager’s check for P11.5 million payable to “GSP-Cebu/Ma. Cielo Martinez.”

The manager’s check was then deposited at the Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI)-Cebu capitol branch on Oct. 20, 2003 where it stayed for one week before Maria Cielo Martinez withdrew the money and deposited P10 million into another BPI account opened in her mother’s name.

Appealing the findings of the Office of the Ombudsman, the former congresswoman said graft probers failed to see that the BPI account where the money was eventually placed did not belong to her but was a trust fund maintained by GSP-Cebu.

She said official receipts for the amounts of P4 million and P6 million were submitted to the graft probers as part of her defense that no government money was lost.