Graft raps vs ex-mayor, businessman greenlighted

Former Bayambang, Pangasinan municipal mayor Ricardo Camacho and co-accused businessman Willie Chua failed to stop the Sandiganbayan from proceeding with their graft charges stemming from an unlawful land swap deal in 2013.

In a 7-page resolution handed down on Tuesday, the anti-graft court’s Sixth Division said it did not find the grounds put out by Camacho and Chua compelling enough to warrant the suspension of the proceedings in the graft charges filed against them.

The case pertains to swapping a 3.1-hectare lot Bayambang Central School with a 2.2 private lot property owned by Chua in August 2013.

According to the prosecution, Camacho, in connivance with Chua, approved swapping the municipality’s property to the businessman’s, which was smaller and had a market value significantly lower than that of the municipality’s property.

Both Camacho and Chua were indicted of two counts of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for causing injury to the government by entering into a Deed of Exchange of Real Properties.

In November 2014, the president of Bayambang Parents-Teachers Association filed a case before the Ombudsman to nullify the land swap. He alleged the deal was inequitable as the Chua-owned site had a lower zonal value than the original campus.

However, the PTA lost in the case as Chua claimed there was no deed of exchange between himself and the LGU represented by Camacho.

As part of his attempt to obstruct the progress of the case, Chua contended that the Sandiganbayan’s proceedings should be halted until the Regional Trial Court resolves the pending previous prejudicial question.

The Sandiganbayan, however, did not buy Chua’s claim.

“The resolution of the issue before the RTC not being necessarily determinative of the accused’s guilt or innocence, there is no basis for suspending the proceedings in these cases because of a prejudicial question,” the court said.