Monday, July 07, 2008 Bribery case vs. Castro to go on, Sandiganbayan division rules
THE bribery case against Cebu City Assistant Prosecutor Mary Ann Castro before the Sandiganbayan Third Division will go on.
In a resolution last June 30, the anti-graft court denied Castro’s pleading to dismiss the case for lack of evidence.
The Sandiganbayan ruled that there is sufficient evidence to support the case against Castro in relation to an alleged P10,000 payoff to go easy on a drug suspect’s application for bail, according to a GMA news report.
Castro’s defense that she had intentions of turning over the money is best presented in court, said the ruling.
According to the court, there are “matters of evidence that can be properly ventilated when the accused takes her turn to adduce evidence in her behalf.”
Two witnesses testified that Castro admitted having custody of the money for three days after a lawyer left it on her table.
“More importantly, when (prosecution witness Romulo “Lloyd”) Suarez took the witness stand, the accused had confessed to him only the year before that the money was still in her possession,” read the Sandiganbayan’s 22-page resolution.
“It can therefore be inferred that from the acts of the accused following the incident, she did not only receive the money with tacit approval but likewise exhibited the intention of retaining it,” the resolution continued.
Suarez is a dySS broadcaster and newspaper columnist. He said he was the first reporter to cover the bribery attempt on Castro.
In May 2005, Suarez testified that at around 3 p.m. on Jan. 28, 2002, he arrived late for the hearing of the drug case against three suspected members of the Hong Kong Triad.
After the hearing, he went to Castro’s cubicle where the latter reportedly offered him a “big scoop.”
“Lloyd, gi-brayban ko. Lloyd, gi-subornohan ko (I was bribed),” Suarez recalled Castro as telling him.
Immediately after this, Castro took from her cabinet the envelope that she said lawyer Gines Abellana left for her and gave it to Suarez. Castro told him she did not look at the contents of the envelope.
Suarez said he remembered asking her permission to open the envelope where he found ten P1,000 bills. He said he has no idea why Castro divulged to him first the bribery attempt.
Chin up
But the Sandiganbayan resolution is not a total defeat, Castro said.
She did not comment on the contents of the resolution but said that Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy will handle the case. Sitoy was Castro’s defense lawyer but after being elected as Cordova mayor, he turned over the case to lawyer Antonio Bacalso.
Bacalso refused to comment on the resolution pending receipt of a copy of it. But, he said, if their motion was denied, they would file for a reconsideration.
Castro, after the alleged bribery, said she planned to give the envelope back to Abellana but failed to locate him. Since she was given the envelope on a Friday and she had to leave for Ozamis City, she left it in her steel cabinet.
She reported the incident to Suarez the next Monday.
Castro was part of the three-member prosecution panel in the drug possession case against brothers Giovanni “Nanan” and Jovan Gimenez and Victor Ceniza. They were arrested in 2001 for allegedly possessing 337.97 grams of shabu. (JGA)
