Sandiganbayan: Prosecution sufficiently informed Cusi, co-accused about Malampaya case details

The Sandiganbayan on Friday ruled that government prosecutors "sufficiently" informed ex-Energy chief Alfonso Cusi and his co-accused of the grounds and other details of the graft charge filed against them in the Malampaya case.

The Sandiganbayan Third Division was referring to the sections 3C and 3E of the Bill of Particulars submitted by the prosecution.

Section 3C states that the government is alleging that the 2019 sale of Chevron Malampaya LLC 45% share in the Malampaya consortium to Dennus Uy’s firm UC Malampaya, approved by Cusi and his co-accused, reduced the Malampaya natural gas project consortium's gas proceeds or revenues from US$ 1.22 billion to US$976 million in 2020, US$ 912 million in 2021, US$ 1.08 billion in 2022, US$ 791 million in 2023 and US$ 680 million in 2024.

UC Malampaya is a subsidiary of Uy's Udenna Corp.

Section 3E, on other hand, states that the government accuses the respondents allowed the Uy-owned UC Malampaya to take control of the 45% participating interest of Chevron for a price of US$ 387.6 million instead of conducting an open bidding.

This amount is way lower than the subject share’s actual price of US$ 565 million.

“Section 3C and 3E are compliant with the Court’s Order [for the prosecution to submit] Bill of Particulars,” Sandiganbayan Third Division chairperson and Associate Justice Karl Miranda said.

The motion for Bill of Particulars was sought by Cusi’s co-accused by citing that the prosecution did not sufficiently allege the details of the graft charge filed against them.

Aside from Cusi, others accused in the graft case were former and incumbent Energy officials namely:

• Donato Marcos
• Robert Biron Uy
• Leonido Pulido III
• Cesar Dela Fuente III
• Guillermo Ansay
• Araceli Santos-Soluta
• Thelma Cerdeña
• Demujin Antiporda
• Arthus Tenazas and
• Rowena Joyce Delos Santos

Of the 11 accused, Pulido, Ansay, Antiporda, Tenazas and delos Santos are still working for the government.

In response to the court’s ruling, Cusi’s co-accused asked for five more days to appeal the court’s ruling that the prosecution’s Bill of Particulars was compliant.

Cusi then followed suit and adopted his co-accused's position.

As a result, their arraignment has been rescheduled to July 10.

The graft case over the alleged illegal sale of Chevron’s sale to Uy’s UC Malampaya was filed way back in August 2025. —VAL, GMA News