Sandigan asked to suspend Biazon
Government prosecutors are asking the Sandiganbayan to issue a preventive suspension order against former Bureau of Customs (BOC) chief and now Muntinlupa Rep. Rozzano Biazon.
In a motion filed before the anti-graft court’s Seventh Division, ombudsman lawyers said preventive suspension against an incumbent government official charged with graft under Section 13 of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act is mandatory.
Biazon, who is facing graft and malversation of public funds charges for alleged involvement in the pork barrel fund scam, pleaded not guilty to the cases two weeks ago.
“With the arraignment of all accused- public officers, the validity of the (complaint) filed against them is no longer in question. The prosecution, most respectfully, posits that suspension must follow as a matter of course,” government prosecutors said.
The Office of the Ombudsman stressed that based on Supreme Court rulings, preventive suspension under Section 13 of RA 3019 is mandatory.
Prosecutors claimed that allowing Biazon and his coaccused to stay in office while on trial for criminal charges “may frustrate the prosecution of the crime, if not prejudice the cases, filed against them.”
“To prevent the accused from committing further acts of malfeasance while in office, or tamper with documentary evidence and intimidate or influence witnesses in the case, it is necessary that the accused be suspended from office while the case is pending in court,” government lawyers stressed.
Ombudsman prosecutors said Undersecretary Mario Relampagos, Marilous Bare, Rosario Nuñez and Lalaine Paule of the Department of Budget and Management, who are also respondents to the criminal cases, should likewise be preventively suspended.
Biazon is accused of misusing his priority development assistance fund allocations when he was also congressman of Muntinlupa in 2007 with former lawmaker and former Energy Regulatory Commission chair Zenaida Ducut reportedly acting as his collector for kickbacks or commissions from alleged pork barrel scam brains Janet Lim-Napoles.
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