(Eagle News) — The Supreme Court has affirmed an Ombudsman ruling clearing personalities connected to the late president Ferdinand Marcos, including former senator Juan Ponce Enrile, and several others of graft over an alleged P108-million behest loan granted to a sugar milling company by the Philippine National Bank in 1968.
The SC, in a 15-page decision, affirmed a 2006 ruling of the Ombudsman that had junked the graft complaints filed by the Presidential Commission on Good Government against former directors of the Philippine National Bank (PNB), and the officers and directors of the Tolong Sugar Milling Company, Inc. (TSMCI)
Named as respondents in the PCGG complaint were former PNB directors Enrile, Roberto Benedicto, Antonio Diaz, Ismael Reinoso, Simeon Miranda, Renato Tayag, Juan Trivinio, Cesar Virata, Jose Macario Laurel IV, and Jose Leido Jr. as respondents.
Former PNB-Dumaguete branch managers Rafael Perez and Felicisimo Gonzalo were also impleaded, aside from TSMCI officers and directors Ramon Escaño, Herminio Teves, Evelina Teves, Lorenzo Teves, Catalino Noel, and Lamberto Macias.
The High Court’s Second Division issued the ruling dated March 20 that denied the petition for certiorari filed by the PCGG.
“Simply stated, no grave of abuse of discretion may be attributed to the Ombudsman merely because of its alleged misappreciation of facts and evidence. The petitioner in a certiorari proceeding must clearly demonstrate that the court or tribunal blatantly abused its authority to a point so grave as to deprive it of its very power to dispense justice,” it said.
“[T]he instant petition is bereft of any statement or allegation purportedly showing that the Ombudsman exercised its power in an arbitrary or despotic manner by reason of passion or hostility. Consequently, the instant petition must be dismissed,” it added.
The PCGG filed the graft case for a $27.793 million PNB loan to TSMCI although it was “undercapitalized.” PCGG’s technical working group also claimed the loan was “undercollateralized.”
At the time, the $27.793 million PNB loan to TSMCI was valued at P108.91-million.
The PCGG pointed out that TSMCI’s total capital was only P10 million, while its total assets which had been pledged as security amount to only P69.63 million which were not sufficient for the loan amount.
The high court’s decision was penned by Associate Justice Jose Reyes, Jr., and was concurred in by Associate Justices Mariano del Castillo, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, and Amy Lazaro-Javier
It said that the PCGG’s allegations were “insufficient” to support the graft charges, and that there was no allegation that the respondents had “conspired and colluded with each other to defraud the government.”
In December 2006, the Ombudsman dismissed the criminal complaints against the respondents for lack of probable cause. It also denied PCGG’s motion for reconsideration in April 2009, claiming that there was not enough evidence on the part of the respondents that would be enough to pin them down on the criminal complaint.
The SC agreed with the Ombudsman’s ruling saying the PCGG “utterly failed to demonstrate or even allege that the respondents acted with manifest partiality, evident bad faith, or inexcusable negligence, causing undue injury or unwarranted benefit to any party.”
It said that the dismissal by the Ombudsman of the graft complaint was not tainted by grave abuse of discretion.
