Court junks graft case vs Bacolod City mayor

THE Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division has thrown out a graft case filed last year against Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia and eight other individuals in connection with procurement of furniture

In a three-page resolution promulgated on January 26, the anti-graft court said the constitutional guarantee against inordinate delay” when it took it more than eight years (October 14, 2008 to December 2, 2016) to resolve the case against the nine respondents.

The court, thus, granted the Leonardia group’s motion to dismiss as well as the omnibus motion wherein the following individuals sought case dismissal: Goldwyn Nifras, who was then-chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee at the time material to the case; then-City was then vice chairman of the BAC; thenBAC member Nelson Sedillo Sr., who led the Department of Public Services; Belly Aguillon (then-city engineer); Eduardo Ravena (then-city accountant); Aladino Agbones and Jaries Encabo who were then-members of the BAC Technical Working Group; and then-Assistant General the BAC Secretariat.

It also lifted the December 4, 2017 hold departure order against the nine individuals.

- bayan last year, the Ombudsman alleged in a charge sheet that the individuals charged, “by direct participation and indispensable cooperation,” “cause[d] the procurement of - cies to be housed at the New Bacolod City National Government Center, for the contractual cost of” P49,059,696.81, which was supposedly “paid in full to Comfac Corporation despite” supposed “irregularities in the bidding procedure and noncompliance with Republic Act 9184 [Government Procurement Reform Act].”