Sandiganbayan rejects bid to remove ex-DPWH chief Bonoan from graft case

The Sandiganbayan Second Division has junked the government prosecutors’ bid to discharge former Public Works chief Manuel Bonoan as an accused in the graft case over his alleged involvement in a flood control kickback scheme.

The anti-graft court informed the parties of its decision during the pre-trial conference on the graft case against Bonoan and his co-accused, Senator Jinggoy Estrada, on Tuesday.

In response, the government prosecutors told the court that they would continue to treat Bonoan as an accused pending further instructions from their superiors at the Office of the Ombudsman.

The Second Division’s decision was the opposite of the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division’s ruling, which granted the prosecution’s request to remove Bonoan as an accused in the P573-million plunder case and another graft case over his alleged involvement in the flood control kickback scheme with Estrada.

The Fifth Division ordered Bonoan’s release from hospital detention on September 3 following its ruling removing the former Public Works chief from the list of accused in the P573-million plunder and graft cases.

While the graft case centers on alleged partiality that resulted in injury to the government, the law defines plunder as committed by “any public officer who, by himself or in connivance with members of his family, relatives by affinity or consanguinity, business associates, subordinates or other persons, amasses, accumulates or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt or criminal acts in the aggregate amount or total value of at least P50 million.”

A 2016 Supreme Court ruling, however, requires the prosecution to establish a principal plunderer for a conviction. — MCG, GMA News