Supreme Court reinstates graft case vs. Nova Parojinog

More than a year after the Sandiganbayan dismissed the case, the Supreme Court has ordered the reinstatement of graft charges against Ozamiz City Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog-Echavez.

In a Feb. 11 decision made public Monday, the SC's Third Division reversed and set aside the anti-graft court's rulings that junked the case for a defect in the charge and for inordinate delay.

Parojinog-Echavez and her father, the late city mayor Reynaldo Sr., were accused of having a "financial or pecuniary interest" in a construction company that was awarded a project for the renovation of a local gymnasium.

The SC ruled that Ombudsman prosecutors should be given the opportunity to correct a defect in its charge -- an alleged failure to constitute an offense -- in accordance with Section 4, Rule 117 of the Rules of Court.

It also held that the time the Ombudsman took to investigate the case before filing it before the Sandiganbayan "was not attended by vexatious, capricious and oppressive delays as would constitute a violation of respondents' right to a speedy disposition of cases."

"We find the period of less than two years not to be unreasonable or arbitrary," the Court said in a decision penned by Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta.

The Office of the Ombudsman may amend its charge against Parojinog-Echavez for graft, the Court said. Her father being deceased, the SC ordered the reinstatement of the case only against the vice mayor.

The elder Parojinog, who was in President Rodrigo Duterte's list of local government officials allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade, was killed during a police raid in 2017. — RSJ, GMA News