THE Sandiganbayan Third Division has thrown out objections raised by defendant businessman Ernest Escaler to the taking of the deposition of former Philippine Consul to Berne, Switzerland Lilibeth Pono as part of the government’s evidence in an ill-gotten wealth case.
Escaler had said that Pono cannot give her deposition before Minister and Consul Gerardo Abiog at the Philippine Embassy in Berlin, Germany because the latter is supposedly disqualified since she is an “employee” of the Republic of the Philippines, which is the petitioner in the pending case.
Presiding Justice and Third Division chairperson Amparo M. Cabotaje-Tang penned the 12-page resolution that overruled Escaler’s argument for being absurd, noting that by the same interpretation, even the members of the court can be lumped as “employees” of the petitioner. Associate Justices Ronald B. Moreno and Benelito R. Fernandez concurred.
The court sustained the prosecution’s stand that Escaler’s contention will only lead to absurdity.
“Indeed, a literal and short-sighted interpretation of the word ‘employee’… would even lead to the disqualification of the members of this Court from hearing this case as they are also ‘employees’ of the Republic of the Philippines,” the Sandiganbayan said.
Escaler was named a co-respondent in the forfeiture case filed in 2014 concerning alleged undeclared bank deposits of former Justice Secretary Hernando Perez, his wife Rosario, and brother-in-law Ramon Arceo.
Based on the complaint, the Office of the Ombudsman said Perez failed to disclose a $1.7 million fund transfer that went into his bank account courtesy of Escaler. Investigators said they have the paper trail of the transaction.
The sum was reportedly part of the $2 million cash paid to Perez by Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez a.k.a. Mario Crespo in February 2001 in exchange for his exclusion in a plunder investigation against deposed president Joseph Estrada.
The Office of the Ombudsman said part of the money went into two accounts at EFG Bank SA in Geneva, Switzerland 22 days apart in March 2001.
In its resolution, the court noted that Escaler sought the disqualification of Abiog but failed to attack the relevancy of Pono’s testimony.
“More importantly, based on the ex parte motion of the petitioner, the testimony that will be given by Ms. Pono is relevant to the settlement of the issues raised in this case as she issued a Certificate of Authentication of certain documents material to this case when she was still the Consul at the Philippine Embassy in Berne, Switzerland,” the Sandiganbayan pointed out.
It clarified that in the proper sense, Abiog is an employee of the Department of Foreign Affairs which has administrative control over consular offices of the Philippines abroad.
On the other hand, the pending case was filed by the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) which is an independent body created pursuant to Section 5, Article 11 of the 1987 Constitution.
