SIA’S GRAFT CASE ON

Anti-graft court says former Ronda mayor’s quash motion lacks merit

The trial of the criminal case against former Ronda municipal mayor Esteban R. Sia before the Sandiganbayan continues.

This, after the anti-graft court’s Fifth Division denied for lack of merit Sia’s motion to quash information with an urgent prayer to defer his arraignment.

“There were no restraints imposed on the accused or actual prejudice caused to his rights, finances, health or social standing,” read the Sandiganbayan’s resolution penned by Associate Justice Rafael Lagos.

Last July 27, 2016, the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas charged Sia with failure to render public accounts properly under Article 218 of the Revised Penal Code before the anti-graft court.

Sia received a total of P2,597,560.70 for his official travels, intelligence fund, and other office activities between 2007 and 2010.

Pursuant to Commission on Audit Circular 97-002, in relation to the Government Auditing Code and Government Accounting and Auditing Manual (GAAM), Sia was directed to render a report and liquidate his expenses.

But Sia failed to submit his liquidation report.

Sia acted with “deliberate intent, did then and there willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously fail to render the required account- ing for a period of two months within which such accounts should be rendered, to the damage and prejudice of the government,” said Darius Sagadal, graft investigation and prosecution officer.

In his motion, Sia argued that his constitutional right to speedy disposition of his case was violated by the ombudsman, which he said resulted in “inordinate, oppressive, and unreasonable delay” in the filing of case.

But the ombudsman argued that Sia cannot invoke inordinate delay as a ground to dismiss his case. The anti-graft office said that it took them two years and for months to complete its investigation and file the case against the former mayor.