Sandigan: Evidence vs ex-Masbate lawmaker sufficient

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has affirmed the sufficiency of evidence presented by the Office of the Ombudsman against former Masbate third district representative Rizalina Seachon-Lanete for plunder and graft in connection with the pork barrel scam.

In a resolution promulgated on Dec. 19 and released recently, the anti-graft court’s fourth division denied for lack of merit Lanete’s motion to allow her to file a demurrer to evidence.

A demurrer would have allowed Lanete to seek the dismissal of the charges filed against her without presenting her defense, but based solely on the supposed weakness of evidence of the prosecution.

The fourth division found no merit in Lanete’s argument that it found the evidence presented by the prosecution as weak after her petition for bail for plunder was granted.

The court said the bail hearing was different from the full-blown trial of the cases.

The fourth division had earlier denied a similar motion filed by Lanete’s co-accused, detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

Napoles and Lanete are facing one count each of plunder and 11 counts each of graft over the alleged misuse of the lawmaker’s Priority Development Assistant Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel from 2007 to 2010 amounting to P112.9 million.

The ombudsman said Lanete received kickbacks worth P108.4 million when she allocated her PDAF to bogus non-government organizations supposedly owned by Napoles.