AN official of a cooperative and five other private defendants in the so-called onion procurement scam in 2022 have failed to persuade the Sandiganbayan to quash the case against them for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019).
In a nine-page resolution dated October 8 but released only last October 16, the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division denied the motion to quash filed by Israel Reguyal, president of Bonena Multi-purpose Cooperative, and Bonena employees Jocelyn Jane, Angelo Lajom, Randy Santos, Ruben Bautista, and Vince Lorenzo.
The defendants argued that that information should have been thrown out for being defective, saying it charges two separate crimes — graft and violation of the Government Procurement Reform Act (RA 9184) — which they said is not allowed under the rules of criminal procedure.
The movants were named co-accused of former Agriculture Assistant Secretary Kristine Evangelista in the criminal charges filed by the Office of the Ombudsman early this year in connection with alleged irregularities in the procurement of P133 million worth of onions from December 2022 to January 2023.
Graft investigators accused the DA official of conspiring with officials of the Food Terminal Inc (FTI) in giving unwarranted reference and advantage to Bonena by awarding the latter the delivery contract for 8,845 bags of onions with a total price of P132.99 million.
They said the FTI even paid an advance downpayment of P66.5 million to Bonena representing 50 percent of the contract cost, in violation of the provisions of the Government Procurement Reform Law (RA 9184).
Evangelista allegedly approved the selection of the cooperative that will supply agricultural commodities,
Also charged in both cases were FTI vice president John Gabriel Trinidad III, warehouse supervisor Benedict Libres, and warehouse staff Marlon Pagsisihan.
From Bonena, aside from Reguyal, Jane, Lajom, Bautista, Lorenzo, and Santos, also charged were Rossul Batadhay, Romy Jimeno, Charlito Ylanan, Francisco Laplana III, Arnold Osorio, Erickson Cortez, Windell Canaan, and AJ Balama.
Prosecutors said Bonena lacked financial capability to undertake the volume of procurement which was a requirement of RA 9184 before a government agency can transact or enter into a procurement contract.
In addition, they said no bag of onion reached the Kadiwa stores of the FTI hence the government sustained damage of about P66.5 million representing the 50 percent advance payment released to Bonena.
Reduyal and the five Bonena employees argued that the duplicity of offenses is unfair to them since it affords the prosecutors “liberty to prosecute the accused for all crimes alleged in the information” while the defendants face the danger of being convicted of multiple crimes under one information.
The court, however, said the mention of RA 9184 in the information does not impute a different criminal offense but was only “an ingredient or an essential element of the real offense charged.”
It pointed out that a close examination of the allegations shows that if the accused were to admit them hypothetically, it would establish only one crime — violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019).
“It is clear on the face thereof that all of the accused are charged only with one offense under Section 3 (e) of R. A. No. 3019 and not also with another offense under R. A. No. 9184,” the Sandiganbayan said.
It clarified that the inclusion of the alleged disregard of the provision of the Government Procurement Reform Act did not amount to a separate offense.
“As such, the Court holds that the challenged information is not defective for duplicity. In sum, the motion to quash is denied for lack of merit,” the court said.
The ruling was penned by Associate Justice Maryann E. Corpus-Mañalac with concurrences from Associate Justices Rafael R. Lagos and Kevin Narce B. Vivero.
