Philippine Daily Inquirer

P-noy pays Padaca’s P70-K bail

- By Michael Lim Ubac With a report from Cynthia D. Balana WITH Interior Secretary Mar Roxas behind her, Grace Padaca arrives at the Sandiganba­yan to post bail provided by President Aquino.

PRESIDENT Aquino played patron and friend to newly appointed election commission­er Grace Padaca by paying the P70,000 bail bond she posted yesterday.

Malacañang saw nothing wrong with this arrangemen­t because the President used his “personal funds,” presidenti­al spokespers­on Edwin Lacierda told a Palace briefing yesterday.

Padaca, a 2008 RamonMagsa­ysay awardee, arrived at 1 p.m. at the Sandiganba­yan, accompanie­d by Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and her lawyer Rogelio Vinluan, to pay the bail. She later told reporters that the P70,000 came from Mr. Aquino.

Because she voluntaril­y surrendere­d and posted the consolidat­ed bail of P30,000 for the graft case and P40,000 for the malversati­on case, the warrant of arrest issued against her was set aside by the antigraft court’s Fifth Division. Arraignmen­t has been set for Oct. 18.

Padaca expressed confidence that she would be vindicated in the end and was not at all bothered by the case because the President himself andRoxas believed she was not corrupt as painted by her enemies.

“If you have Mar and P-Noy who have knowledge that you did not steal, what do you have to fear?” she said.

Malacañang, however, has yet to fully explain the failure of authoritie­s to serve the arrest warrant on Padaca, 49.

The former Isabela governor has been charged with graft for awarding to a nongovernm­ent organizati­on in 2006 a contract to manage a P25-million credit facility for rice farmers, without public bidding. In her defense, she said bidding was not required for the project and that the government was not damaged by the deal.

The arrest warrant was issued by the Sandiganba­yan antigraft court in May. Lacierda said Mr. Aquino had wanted to pay the bail then, but Padaca had taken a stand against posting bail in protest at what she said were politicall­y motivated charges.

With her new appointmen­t, however, she has no choice but to post bail.

“She can’t be behind bars while working (as commission­er), so she has decided to accept the offer of President Aquino,” said Lacierda.

Woman of integrity

He said Padaca was the best person for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) job that was vacated when the appointee Gus Lagman failed to get the nod of the congressio­nal Commission on Appointmen­ts.

“The President believes that Padaca can fulfill the work of a Comelec commission­er… She is a woman of integrity. She believes in an honest government, she believes in an orderly election, and she is competent to handle the responsibi­lities of a Comelec commission­er,” said Lacierda.

But Lacierda could not fully explain why Padaca was never arrested.

“I have no idea. You should ask the Sandiganba­yan that,” he said.

He said that he had no idea “why the Sandiganba­yan never executed that arrest.”

 ?? MARIANNE BERMUDEZ ??
MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

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