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By Jomar Canlas, Reporter
The Supreme Court on Monday gave
the green light to prosecute the graft charges against the officials
of Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc. (Piatco).
This was after the SC Third
Division, with a vote of 3 against 2, junked the petition of Piatco
Chairman and President Henry T. Go who was seeking the dropping of
the graft charges filed against him, in connection with the alleged
irregularity involving the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA)
Terminal 3 project.
According to the 20-page decision
of the SC Third Division under the ponencia of Associate Justice
Romeo Callejo Sr., the court denied the petition for certiorari
filed by Go assailing the December 6, 2005, resolution of the
Sandiganbayan, which denied his motion to dismiss the graft cases
filed against him by the Office of the Ombudsman.
Other justices who concurred in
the ruling are Associate Justices Maria Alicia Austria-Mertinez and
Minita Chico-Nazario while Associate Justices Consuelo Ynares-Santiago
and Antonio Eduardo Nachura dissented from the majority opinion.
The Court ruled that the Fifth
Division of the Sandiganbayan “did not commit grave abuse of
discretion” when it ruled that there exists probable cause to
proceed with the prosecution of the case against Go.
It also pointed out that the
Ombudsman has the power to prosecute criminal cases involving
contracts entered into by the government and unless there is grave
abuse of discretion it shall not be disturbed.
“The fact that one of the
elements of Section [g] of RA 3019 is ‘that the accused is a
public officer’ does not necessarily preclude its application to
private persons, who like petitioner Go, are being charged with
conspiring with public officers in the commission of the offense
there under,” the Court said.
It will be recalled that the
graft case arose from the affidavit-complaint filed with the Office
of the Ombudsman by Maria Cecilia Pesayco, corporate secretary of
Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp. charging Go and several other
officials of conspiracy to defraud the government.
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