Court upholds denial of Philrem head's bid to dismiss graft case

The Sandiganbayan on Thursday upheld its earlier ruling to proceed with the trial of the graft case of Salud Bautista, president of the money remittance firm Philrem Service Corp. in connection with an alleged anomalous courier service deal with the Philippine National Police (PNP).

In a hearing, the Sandiganbayan Sixth Division announced in open court that it was junking Bautista's motion for reconsideration (MR) on the court’s May 18 resolution that found probable cause to put her and the other respondents on trial.

The ruling was made after Bautista and her legal counsel Allelu De Jesus failed to show up during the scheduled hearing of the MR.

The hearing was supposed to start at 9 a.m. but it couldn't due to lack of representation from Bautista’s camp. Because of this, the prosecution panel moved for the outright denial of the MR, which the magistrates of Sixth Division acceded to.

De Jesus arrived at the Sandiganbayan premises around 10 a.m. but by that time the Sixth Division’s session has already adjourned.

De Jesus did not grant an interview with the media, but Sixth Division Clerk of Court lawyer Ruth Ferrer said the former manifested that she will be filing a written appeal and explanation on her failure to attend the hearing.
                                                    
The graft case against Bautista stemmed from an alleged anomalous contract that the PNP entered into in 2011 with the courier service company Werfast Documentary Agency, Inc. for the delivery of firearms licenses of applicants.

The primary accused in the case was former PNP chief Alan Purisima.

Baustista, meanwhile, was named as co-accused in the case as one of the incorporators of Werfast.

Aside from Purisima and Bautista, named as respondents in the case were 15 other individuals including former high-ranking police officers. All of them have earlier posted bail in exchange for their provisional liberty.

In her motion for reconsideration, Bautista maintained that the case must be dismissed for lack of merit and of material evidence.

“Based on the evidence submitted during the preliminary investigation stage and based on the findings of the Honorable Ombudsman, no criminal act was found to be imputable to Ms. Bautista. There was therefore no basis for her inclusion in the prosecution of the instant case,” Bautista’s MR read.

Bautista said the Ombudsman, which filed the case, merely relied on the “theory of conspiracy” among the respondents “without devoting any discussion on how such conspiracy was supposedly established.”

Based on the information of the case filed last month, the contract was awarded to Werfast without holding a public bidding and despite the company’s supposed lack of track record and qualifications as a courier service firm.

The Ombudsman said Werfast was not yet registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when the contract was entered in May 2011. It added that the company was also not authorized by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to offer courier delivery service.

Bautista is also in hot water over Philrem’s alleged involvement in a money laundering scandal concerning $81-million worth hacked money from the Central Bank of Bangladesh and transferred to the bank accounts of big-time casino players. —KBK, GMA News