SC orders plunder trial of Erap pal

The Supreme Court has ordered the Sandiganbayan to proceed with the trial of businessman Jaime Dichaves, a friend of former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, for plunder in relation to the controversial "Jose Velarde" account. 

Dichaves had eluded prosecution for years until the SC, in a decision dated December 7, found no grave abuse of discretion on the part of the Office of the Ombudsman in finding plunder raps against him.

The high court also lifted the temporary restraining order it issued in 2013 against the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division which is hearing the case. 

In its decision, the SC said there was nothing “whimsical, capricious or arbitrary” in the Ombudsman's finding of probable cause to bring Dichaves to court. 

Also, it noted that the Ombudsman was “in a better position to assess the strengths or weaknesses of the evidence on hand needed to make a finding of probable cause."

“[I]t must be emphasized that only opinion and reasonable belief are sufficient at this stage. Thus, petitioner’s other defense contesting the finding of probable cause that is highly factual in nature must be threshed out in a full-blown trial, and not in a special civil action for certiorari before this court,” the SC said through Associate Justice Marvic Leonen. 

“This court finds no reason to violate the policy of non-interference in the exercise of the Ombudsman’s constitutionally mandated powers,” it added.

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.

He was accused of helping Estrada amass ill-gotten 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 January 2001.

Dichaves was the owner of the controversial Jose Velarde account where Estrada allegedly deposited the commissions he got in the purchase of Belle Corp. shares in 1999 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. 

The Sandiganbayan found Estrada guilty of plunder in September 2007, but was pardoned a month later by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo after nearly seven years in detention. —LBG, GMA News