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Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Fiscal Castro suspended
PROSECUTOR Mary Ann Castro will leave for Manila today to verify reports that the anti-graft court has issued a six-month preventive suspension against her.
If necessary, she will file a motion for reconsideration. “I will fight it. They can’t do this to me,” she said.
Castro was the acting Talisay City prosecutor until former Commission on Elections 7 legal officer Marshall Rubia was sworn in for the position yesterday. She will be returning to her old job as assistant city prosecutor of Cebu City.
The suspension order is reportedly related to the P10,000 bribe scandal in 2002 that involved her, lawyer Gines Abellana and drug suspect Giovannie “Nanan” Gimenez.
The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, in May 23, 2003, found Castro administratively liable for misconduct and ordered her suspended for three months for allegedly receiving the money Abellana offered her in exchange for “going easy” on the motion for bail Gimenez filed.
Ombudsman Director Virginia Santiago, in a separate order, charged her criminally with violating the anti-graft law before the Sandiganbayan.The Court of Appeals nullified the anti-graft office’s penalty suspension after Castro filed a petition for certiorari that cited how, based on the Tapiador ruling, the Office of the Ombudsman does not have the authority to suspend officials beyond a month. So the order against her was not final and executory.
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has contested the appellate court’s ruling, saying the Tapiador ruling was merely something the High Tribunal said in passing and, so, does not have the legal value of jurisprudence.
In the meantime, while the OSG and the appellate court are threshing out the issues in the administrative proceeding, the Sandigan-bayan gave the criminal component due course. (JECT of Superbalita/With KNR)
(April 12, 2005 issue)
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