The Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division stood pat on its ruling denying bail to former Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Avelino Razon Jr., former Police Directors Geary Barias and Eliseo dela Paz and several others.
They are detained in the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame in Quezon City over a malversation through falsification of public documents case in connection with the alleged ghost repair of 28 V-150 light armored vehicles in 2007 worth about P400 million.
“The court also maintains that the prosecution was able to establish strong evidence of guilt on the part of each of the accused,” Associate Justice Alex Quiroz wrote in a 12-page resolution.
It was concurred in by Associate Justice Jose Hernandez, who leads the Fourth Division, and Associate Justice Napoleon Inoturan.
The court thumbed down motions for reconsideration filed by Razon and Barias, and an omnibus motion of dela Paz.
Also denied were separate appeals of Police Chief Insp. Annalee Forro, Police Senior Supt. Reuel Labrado and Police Supt. Josefina Dumanew; non-uniformed personnel Alex Barrameda, Nancy Basallo, Patricia Enaje and Maria Teresa Narcise; and contractors Tyrone Ong, Oscar Madamba, Pamela Pensotes and Evangeline Bais.
The court also denied a motion for partial reconsideration of Police Senior Supt. Emmanuel Ojeda.
“At this point, accused-movants cannot claim that they ‘had been merely negligent’ or that they had only signed certain documents. These are already defenses, which must be resolved during trial,” it said.
The court maintained its grant of bail to Police Deputy Director General Reynaldo Varilla and Police Director Charlemagne Alejandrino for their temporary freedom upon posting of P200,000 bail each.
Prosecutors appealed the grant of bail to Varilla and Alejandrino but the court said, “The issues raised by the prosecution... fail to convince this court to change its earlier ruling that the participation of [Varilla] and [Alejandrino] has been limited to their signatures contained in the NHQ-BAC [National Headquarters Bids and Awards Committee] resolution, which has not been admitted into evidence.”
The prosecution argued that the totality of the evidence it presented shows strong evidence of guilt against Varilla and Alejandrino but the court said they were granted bail because “there is nothing in the other documentary or testimonial evidence to prove their involvement in the transactions.”
Last February, the court granted bail to Varilla and Alejandrino, saying it did so without necessarily absolving them.
But it denied the bail petitions of Razon, Barias, dela Paz, Forro, Labrado, Dumanew, Ojeda, Barrameda, Basallo, Enaje, Narcise, Ong, Madamba, Pensotes and Bais.
The complaint was filed in 2013.