Sandiganbayan OKs plea bargain for fertilizer scam supplier

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has allowed a private supplier tagged in the 2004 fertilizer fund scam to plead guilty to lesser offenses under a plea bargain deal before the Office of the Ombudsman.

The anti-graft court’s Fourth Division, in a decision promulgated on Nov. 7, allowed Lucio Lapidez of Feshan Philippines Inc. to plead guilty to two counts of failure to render accounts under Article 218 of the Revised Penal Code.

The court noted that ombudsman prosecutors permitted Lapidez to be re-arraigned for lesser offenses.

With his voluntary admission of guilt, Lapidez was fined only P6,000 for each count of the offense.

He was originally charged with one count each of violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and malversation of public funds, as among the co-respondents of former Agusan del Sur governor Adolph Edward Plaza in connection with the 2004 fertilizer fund scam.

In his plea bargain deal, Lapidez agreed to plead guilty to lesser offenses in exchange for the dropping of his name among the respondents.

Filed by the ombudsman in 2018, the cases stemmed from the Agusan del Sur provincial government’s purchase of fertilizers amounting to P9.908 million from private supplier Feshan Philippines Inc. allegedly without public bidding.