FORMER Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) board member Manuel “Manoling” Morato urged the Sandiganbayan to allow him to post bail in his P366-million plunder charge on the grounds of weak evidence and old age.

Morato asked the Sandiganbayan First Division to allow him temporary liberty “either as a matter of right or judicial discretion.”

He raised in his 12-page motion that the evidence the Office of the

Ombudsman used to drag him into the plunder case, whose lead defendant is Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of Pampanga province, could not sustain guilt and is wanting.

Among others, Morato and the indicted board member were found to have ratified a board resolution that allegedly allowed the former president to divert P366 million of lottery funds to the confidential fund.

He said that the Ombudsman “brushed aside” the points raised by Morato “aggravated by the sweeping conclusion of the existence of conspiracy.”

“The Supreme Court [SC] held that a signature on a voucher, check or warrant, even if required by law to be affixed, is not enough to sustain a finding of conspiracy among public officials and employees charged of defraudation,” Morato pointed out.

He added that the board members’ ratifying acts were done as official duty and, in it, “the law has been obeyed.”

The former PCSO official also said that he is already old, of ill-health and not a flight risk.

His lawyer Dante Diaz said that Morato is already 78 and is blind in one eye. He also has balance problems worsened by ankle injuries and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“Obviously, the medical condition of accused Morato is serious and unpredictable [that he] cannot withstand the atmosphere of the prison cell or further confinement in the hospital,” he said.

Diaz raised the ponente of former SC associate justice Ricardo Francisco, where the erstwhile magistrate said that ill health could be considered a sufficient ground for granting bail.

“Where one committed for a capital offense is suffering from tuberculosis of the lungs, and it appears by the affidavits of reputable physicians . . . that continued confinement would case the disease to terminate fatally, the accused should be released on bail,” a portion of the Ricardo ruling read.

Morato said that the trial is taxing to all accused and he needed all the energy he can gather to prove his innocence.

“Otherwise, it would not be justifiable to inflict upon him the continued confinement thus effectively subjected him to a certain degree of punishment of a guilty person while it is not yet determined that he has committed plunder,” he said.

He prayed that the “best option” is to grant the bail application he sought for. If granted, it is the Sandiganbayan’s discretion to determine the amount of bail Morato will bail.