Ex-consul allowed to testify on $2 million case vs ex-DOJ chief

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has upheld its previous ruling allowing a former Philippine consul to Switzerland to testify on the $2-million civil forfeiture case filed against former justice secretary Hernando Perez and businessman Ernest Escaler.

The anti-graft court’s Third Division, in a resolution promulgated on Dec. 19, said Escaler failed to present any new argument in his motion for reconsideration that would warrant the reversal of its Aug. 30 decision allowing Lilibeth Pono, a former consul at the Philippine embassy in Bern, Switzerland, to give her deposition before minister and consul Gerardo Abiog at the Philippine embassy in Berlin, Germany.

“After a careful review of the arguments raised by respondent Escaler, the court finds that the issues raised therein have been passed upon by this court and no substantial arguments were presented to warrant a reversal of the assailed resolution,” the Third Division said.

In his appeal, Escaler reiterated his previous argument that Abiog must be disqualified from taking the deposition of Pono, as the former, being the current Philippine consul in Germany, is considered an “employee” of the Philippine government, which is the petitioner in the forfeiture case.

The Third Division maintained that Abiog is an employee of the consular office of the Philippines, which is a unit under the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The petitioner in the forfeiture case filed against Escaler and Perez is the Office of the Ombudsman, which is an independent constitutional body.

Filed by the ombudsman in 2014, the forfeiture case stemmed from the alleged extortion of $2 million from the late Manila congressman Mark Jimenez, also known as Mario Crespo.

Based on the ombudsman’s investigation, Perez and Escaler allegedly extorted $2 million from Jimenez in 2001 in exchange for no longer forcing the latter to testify in the plunder case filed against former president Joseph Estrada.

Perez at the time was the secretary of the Department of Justice during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Jimenez, in the course of the ombudsman probe, reportedly executed a letter of retraction.

But the ombudsman ruled to proceed with the filing of the case, saying bank records and the money trail showed that Perez failed to declare huge sums of money in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth for 2001 and 2002.