Late plunder rap vs GMA junked
The said complaint was the case belatedly filed in 2016 by the Field Investigation Office under then Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales
The Office of the Ombudsman has dismissed the last plunder complaint belatedly filed against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and several officials of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) over the use of the Confidential and Intelligence Fund (CIF) for lack of evidence.
In a 10-page Resolution penned by Lucielo Ramirez Jr., Graft Investigation and Prosecution Officer III and approved by Ombudsman Samuel Martires dated 13 February 2019 but received only recently, the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed the complaint for plunder, malversation of public funds and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act against Arroyo and her co-respondents over the alleged misuse of P73 million in CIF from 2004 to 2007 when Arroyo was president.
The said complaint was the case belatedly filed in 2016 by the Field Investigation Office (FIO) under then Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales in at about the same time the Supreme Court acquitted the former President of the plunder charge involving the PCSO CIFs for the period 2008 to 2010.
The Ombudsman said following the Supreme Court (SC) ruling dismissing a similar plunder complaint against Arroyo, there was no evidence that she and her co-respondents, Rosario Uriarte, former PCSO General Manager, Sergio Valencia (former PCSO Chairman), Benigno Aguas, former PCSO Manager, Gloria Araullo, PCSO Releasing Officer, Lorna Dimapilis, former Commission on Audit Assistant Commissioner, and Nilda Plaras, former CoA Auditor, pocketed or misappropriated the P73.617 million CIF disbursed upon the request of Uriarte and Valencia.
“The question involving the use of the PCSO’s CIF is not novel. In a similar case involving the use of the PCSO’s CIF for CYs 2008 to 2010, the Supreme Court dismissed the case against Arroyo and Aguas. The High Court ruled, among other things, that (1) the Prosecution did not prove the existence to conspiracy among Arroyo, Aguas and Uriarte.; (2) no proof of amassing or accumulating, or acquiring ill-gotten wealth of at least P50 million was adduced against Arroyo and Aguas and finally (3) the prosecution failed to prove the predicate act of raiding the public coffers,” the Ombudsman ruled.
It further stated that the SC had already earlier found that the requests of Uriarte and Valencia for the period 2008 to 2010 were valid and legal as they complied with all the requirements of Letter of Instructions 1282 in the disbursement of intelligence funds. In the subsequent complaint filed covering the years 2004 to 2007, the Ombudsman said Uriarte and Valencia’s requests had all the requirements under the said LoI.