Sandiganbayan defers arraignment of Muntinlupa Rep. Biazon, ex-Rep. Valencia

The Sandiganbayan Seventh Division has deferred the arraignment of Muntinlupa Rep. Rozzano Rufino “Ruffy” Biazon and former Oriental Mindoro Rep. Rodolfo Valencia for their criminal cases in connection with the pork barrel scam.

At their scheduled arraignment on Monday, Biazon and Valencia's respective lawyers manifested that their clients still have motions, which the court has yet to resolve.

Biazon’s lawyers Joseph Capistrano and Jose Balmeo Jr. informed the court that they filed last week a motion for reconsideration on the court’s earlier denial of the lawmaker’s motion for judicial determination of probable cause, which prays for the dismissal of his cases.

Biazon is facing before the Seventh Division one count each of graft, malversation and direct bribery cases.

The cases stemmed from Biazon's alleged misallocation of his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel in 2007 to one of the fake foundations allegedly owned by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the pork scam.

Based on the information of the cases filed by the Office of the Ombudsman in April of this year, Biazon allocated P3 million of his PDAF to the Napoles-linked Philippine Social Development Foundation, Inc. (PSDFI) in exchange of P1.950 million worth of kickbacks.

In his motion for reconsideration, Biazon maintained that the charges against him are baseless as he is “not an accountable officer.”

Biazon, who once served as Customs commissioner, said that under a special provision on the use of PDAF in the 2007 General Appropriations Act (GAA), “the fund should be released to the implementing agency and not to the legislator.”

Meanwhile, Napoles and four other co-accused of Biazon namely, former Technology Resource Center (TRC) group manager Francisco Figura, former TRC budget officer Lilian Espiritu, former TRC chief accountant Marivic Jover and former TRC internal auditor Maurine Dimaranan, were arraigned on Monday and entered a “not guilty” plea.

Another co-accused in the cases, former Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairperson Zenaida Ducut has earlier been arraigned and likewise entered a not guilty plea.

Valencia

Meanwhile, Valencia, through his lawyers, also moved for the deferment of his scheduled arraignment for separate set of criminal cases still in connection with the pork barrel scam.

Valencia’s camp informed the court that the former lawmaker has a pending motion for judicial determination of probable cause filed on Tuesday last week.

Valencia is facing before the Seventh Division three counts of graft and another three counts of malversation of public funds over the alleged misuse of P6.51 million of PDAF from January 2008 to June 2009.

Based on the information of the cases, Valencia allocated portions of his PDAF to Masaganang Ani Para sa Magsasaka Foundation Inc. (MAMFI), another fake foundation allegedly owned by Napoles, in exchange for kickbacks.

The Ombudsman, however, did not specify in the charge sheets the exact amount of kickbacks that Valencia supposedly received.

In his motion for judicial determination of probable cause, Valencia said the cases should be dismissed as they supposedly rest on “spurious documents” bearing his “forged signatures.”

Meanwhile, the arraignment of Valencia’s co-accused, Napoles, pushed through on Monday. Napoles entered a not guilty plea.

On the other hand, the court also deferred the arraignment of 13 other respondents in the cases as they have their respective motions, which the court has yet to resolve.

The Seventh Division did not set a new tentative date for Biazon and Valencia’s arraignment.

Valencia and Biazon were among the third batch of lawmakers recently charged by the Ombudsman in connection with the pork barrel scam.

The others were former congressmen Arrel Olaño (Davao Del Norte), Marc Douglas Cagas IV (Davao Del Sur) and Arthur Pingoy Jr. (South Cotabato). — RSJ, GMA News