A PENDING plunder case is not enough to unseat the Vice President. The reason why Akbayan and other groups filed an impeachment complaint against her.
Plunder would manacle her though in many ways. The VP will need to assemble and spend for a crack legal team that will try to have the plunder charge dismissed at the preliminary investigation stage.
She will face a more difficult round once that attempt is stymied and the complaint progresses to a criminal information in court, which has the discretion to deny bail while trial is ongoing. Her lawyers will have to argue that the evidence of guilt is not strong.
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The right to bail is available to every person accused of a crime.
Such right is enshrined in the Constitution. An accused is presumed innocent until proven otherwise, with the untrammeled right to be set free upon the posting of a bond.
The only exception provided by the Constitution is when the crime charged is punishable by reclusion perpetua or death, in which case the accused is not entitled to bail when the evidence of guilt is strong.
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A person accused of a capital offense is impelled by a greater motivation to jump bail and escape the clutches of the law.
The prosecution is thus required to present strong evidence that the accused is guilty. The problem is that this presentation normally requires a long time here in the Philippines.
Take the case of former senator Leila de Lima. In one of the drug cases filed against her, it took more than six years for the prosecution to present evidence of guilt. In the meantime, she stayed in detention in Camp Crame – isolated from family and friends.
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Will VP Sara suffer the same misfortune that her father inflicted on de Lima?
Even if she does not lose her office, the VP in detention will be immobilized – unable to marshal the forces that will ensure her political survival, much less promotion to the higher office of the presidency.
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“Plunder” is a public officer’s accumulation of ill-gotten wealth of at least P50 million.
The Commission on Audit has disallowed P73 million sourced by the OVP from confidential funds. This is part of the P125 million in just 11 days in late 2022, as if there was an ultra-urgent need to quell a massive security threat.
The disallowance means that COA requires the amount returned to the government for being “extravagant or illegal.” The threshold amount for plunder has certainly been breached if such arrant irregularity is shown by the evidence.
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Mary Grace Piattos is among the unknown personalities who signed an acknowledgment receipt documenting the disbursement of the OVP’s confidential funds.
It is unlikely that this individual will surface to confirm her receipt of the funds. There are doubts that she exists as an actual person.
Piattos, along with others surnamed Nova, Tempura, and Oishi, will make plunder difficult to explain away. But first in the order of things at the Batasan is the impeachment complaint filed just yesterday./PN
