Sandiganbayan resets arraignment of Pichay, Wes Gatchalian to March

The Sandiganbayan has reset to March 9 the arraignment of Valenzuela City Rep. Weslie Gatchalian, Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay and several others for criminal charges related to the Local Water Utilities Administration's (LWUA) allegedly anomalous acquisition of a thrift bank in 2009.

The anti-graft court's Fourth Division canceled the arraignment scheduled on Tuesday since it has yet to resolve the pending motions filed by both the prosecution and defense.

Pichay, Gatchalian and 23 others are facing charges of graft, malversation and violation of the manual of regulation for banks over the deal.

The charges stemmed from LWUA’s acquisition of Express Savings Bank Inc. (ESBI), a local thrift bank based in Laguna jointly owned by the  and the Gatchalians' Wellex Group Inc. (WGI) in a deal worth P80 million.

Results of the Ombudsman's investigation showed that the LWUA Board led by Pichay passed a resolution on March 24, 2009 approving the acquisition of ESBI without the requisite regulatory approvals from the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Department of Finance and the Office of the President.

In October last year, the Sandiganbayan cleared Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, one of the accused in the case, of charges related to LWUA's acquisition of ESBI. — Xianne Arcangel/RSJ, GMA News