Sandigan suspends Binay wife’s graft case

MANILA, Philippines - The Sandiganbayan has decided to suspend the trial of former Makati mayor Elenita Binay in the remaining graft case against her.

The anti-graft court’s Third Division was supposed to start hearings yesterday but decided to cancel the proceedings to give the Office of the Ombudsman time to comment on Binay’s motion asking Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang to inhibit herself from handling the case.

Binay – whose husband, former vice president Jejomar Binay, attended yesterday’s proceedings – earlier asked the Sandiganbayan to re-raffle her cases.

However, Cabotaje-Tang’s “adverse reaction” to her request prompted her to move for the magistrate’s inhibition.

Defense lawyers said their client believes she will not get a fair trial under the Third Division, which is chaired by Tang.

The charges of graft and malversation of public funds stem from her alleged involvement in the overpriced purchase of hospital beds and equipment for the Ospital ng Makati in 2000 and 2001.

Last week, the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division acquitted her in a separate graft case after prosecutors failed to prove her guilt beyond reasonable doubt in the city government’s purchase of overpriced office fixtures and furniture worth P13.2 million in 1999 and 2000. 

Two weeks earlier, the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division also junked a similar case against Binay halfway through the trial by granting her demurrer to evidence, which claimed that government lawyers, after completing their presentation of evidence, failed to prove their allegations.