SC stops plunder case vs. Erap ally Jaime Dichaves

The Supreme Court has stopped the Office of the Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan from proceeding with the plunder case of businessman Jaime Dichaves, the alleged owner of the controversial "Jose Velarde" accounts linked to former President and now Manila mayor Joseph Estrada.

Voting 4-0, the SC Third Division issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan, and directed them to comment within 10 days on Dichaves' petition, the SC Public Information Office said in a summary of the minute resolution.

"The Court, without necessarily giving due course thereto, further resolves to require respondents to comment thereon (not to file a motion to dismiss) within a non-extendible period of ten (10) days from notice and to issue temporary restraining order enjoining respondents, their agents and assigns, and anyone acting under them or on their behalf, from proceeding with the arraignment and trial of the petitioner for the crime of plunder under R.A. No. 7080, effective immediately and continuing until further orders from the Court," the high court said.

Dichaves brought the case to the SC after the Sandiganbayan denied his motion seeking to dismiss the plunder case against him.

Aside from dismissing Dichaves' motion, the anti-graft court also ordered the Office of the Ombudsman to re-investigate the case upon learning that Dichaves was not able to participate in the preliminary investigation.

Dichaves was accused of helping Estrada amass wealth through profit and commissions when Estrada was still president. Although he had denied the accusation, he left the country before Estrada was removed from Malacañang in 2001.

Dichaves was the owner of the controversial "Jose Velarde" accounts, where Estrada allegedly deposited the commissions he got in the purchase of Belle Corp. shares by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Social Security System (SSS). Estrada was also accused of signing as Jose Velarde in those accounts.

In the latest SC resolution, Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta took no part in the voting because of his "participation in cases at the Sandiganbayan," of which he used to be a member.

In asking the junking of the plunder case against him, Dichaves had insisted the Ombudsman cannot use the same evidence it had used in prosecuting Estrada in the latter's own plunder case.

The Sandiganbayan found Estrada guilty of plunder in 2007 but he was later pardoned by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. — Mark Merueñas/KBK, GMA News