Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Perez, wife seek suspension of extortion trial
FORMER justice secretary Hernando Perez and wife Rosario on Tuesday asked various divisions of the Sandiganbayan to defer the proceedings in their criminal charges pending the Supreme Court’s (SC) resolution on their petition for certiorari.
In a pleading filed through lawyers Ma. Preciosa Gumaru and Pamela Jane Jalandoni, the Perez couple prayed that the proceedings in their cases be suspended, including the issuance of warrants of arrest against them, until their petition “shall have been fully adjudicated on its merits.”
Last Friday, the Office of the Ombudsman filed graft and robbery charges against the Perezes and two business associates for allegedly extorting US$2 million from former Manila congressman Mark Jimenez.
The ombudsman also filed one more graft charge and a case for falsification of public documents against Perez alone.
The same day the cases were filed with the anti-graft court, the Perez couple asked the high court to review their case, decide on its merits and absolve them of criminal liability.
In their petition, the Perez couple told the SC that the ombudsman acted in excess of its jurisdiction and abused their right to procedural due process when it eventually recommended the filing of criminal charges against them after sitting on the case for five years since 2002.
“The unreasonable delay was never explained by the ombudsman. If any explanations at all were made, however, the same could be contrary to what had been held in Tatad vs Sandiganbayan, et al, where this Honorable Court expressed the rule that long delay in the termination of the preliminary investigation by the Tanodbayan in the instant case (is) violative of the constitutional right of the accused to due process,” the Perez couple lamented.
Assistant Special Prosecutor III Elvira Chua recommended that bail be set at P178,000 for Perez and P130,000 each for his wife and the two other accused.
The filing of the cases was approved by Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, who had served as one of Perez’s undersecretaries at the Department of Justice. (Sunnex)
