Junjun Binay asks Sandiganbayan to review ruling on dismissal plea

Former Makati City mayor Jejomar “Erwin” Binay Jr. has asked the Sandiganbayan to review its decision, denying his motion to dismiss the graft and malversation cases filed against him.

In an 11-page motion for reconsideration filed to the Third Division on Monday, Binay reiterated that the Office of the Ombudsman failed to sufficiently state his alleged offense over the supposedly overpriced Makati City parking building.

“With all due respect, movant seeks a revisit of the February 22 resolution on the ground that there is no basis for the court to have found all the elements of the offense charged are sufficiently alleged in the criminal informations subject of these cases,” Binay said.

In the assailed resolution, the Sandiganbayan denied Binay's dismissal petition for lack of merit and urged the former local chief executive to present his arguments in the case’s trial proper.

Binay is facing two counts of violation of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and malversation of public funds.

He is accused of approving the payment of P11 million to MANA Architecture and Interior Design Co. for the design of the Makati City Hall Building II.

Binay reiterated in his motion for reconsideration that he had no control of the public funds since the contract was bidded out during the term of his father, former Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is also a respondent in the case.

The younger Binay cited Section 444 of the Local Government Code, saying none of the law’s provisions state that a municipal mayor is allowed to have “custody of public funds.”

“For a criminal information to completely alleged the offense of malversation against the movant, a specific allegation regarding his custody of public funds must be contained therein. Absent which, as in this case, renders the same quashable,” Binay said.

“It is thus submitted that an allegation that the herein movant accused ‘consented’ to the ‘misappropriation’ of public funds by MANA is woefully insufficient to constitute the offense as charged,” he added.

The prosecution has yet to submit their comment/opposition to the former's appeal. —ALG, GMA News