THERE’S this term again: inordinate delay.
This was used by the Court of Appeals Ninth Division in dismissing the civil forfeiture case filed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council against three alleged accomplices of Janet Lim Napoles in the pork barrel scam case.
The AMLC believed that properties or assets acquired illegally by Hector Ang, Nicole Tiffany and Jaquiline Ang through dealings with Mrs. Napoles should revert to the government. And so the Council filed a forfeiture case which it won in the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18.
The forfeiture proceedings were scrapped by the appellate court, however, because the AMLC failed to get the case moving for eight long years, and the defendants’ right to a speedy trial was inordinately or extremely being violated.
In their petition, the appellants claimed their right to speedy disposition of their case was violated when the conduct of pre-trial was held eight years and five months after submission of the last pleading.
‘These cases encourage government officials and scheming private individuals to commit graft in the millions of pesos and then escape with the loot…’
In siding with the petitioners, the CA noted that the civil forfeiture case did not move from June 2014 to June 2022, adding that the petitioners were entitled to their right to the speedy disposition of their case.
We see here how the dispensation of justice is snagged by various hurdles that have to do with time. Could it be that litigants are themselves in cahoots with each other to deprive the government — and therefore the people — of the right to seize crime-tainted properties? If so, this is our officials’ way of deceiving the people just by maintaining the slow grind of the wheels of justice.
Are you not convinced? Note the following where inordinate delay was cited as reason for these rulings:
* The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division dismissed four counts of graft filed in 2018 against Editha Jacaban for alleged involvement in irregular procurement of fertilizer and other farm inputs in 2004 by the Department of Agriculture-Region 1. Jacaban was named co-accused of the late Ilocos Norte Rep. Roque Ablan Jr. and others.
* The Supreme Court gave credence to the habeas corpus petition of Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes who was accused of plunder in the multi-billion-peso pork barrel scam together with Juan Ponce Enrile. In their petition, Reyes’ lawyers cited alleged deprivation of liberty and (inordinate) delay in trial of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) plunder case.
* The High Tribunal dismissed the five counts of graft leveled against former Agriculture Secretary Luis Ramon Lorenzo and former National Food Authority administrator Arthur Yap arising from alleged irregular purchase of P46.145 million worth of fertilizers in 2003. The reason: “inordinate delay in the investigation of their cases on the part of the Office of the Ombudsman.”
* The Supreme Court ordered the Ombudsman to dismiss graft charges filed against Juan Ponce Enrile, etc. in connection with coco levy funds, citing violation of their constitutional right to a speedy disposition of cases. Apart from Enrile, also covered by the order are businessman Jose Concepcion, Rolando dela Cuesta, Narciso Pineda, and Danilo Ursua.
These cases encourage government officials and scheming private individuals to commit graft in the millions of pesos and then escape with the loot under the mantle of inordinate delay which now has become the judiciary’s buzzword.
Oddly pathetic.
