ILOILO – Former mayor Frankie Locsin of Janiuay, Iloilo said neither he nor his lawyers received the so-called Supreme Court decision denying with finality the motion for reconsideration he filed on the high court’s ruling rejecting his petition for review on certiorari regarding his graft case in the Sandiganbayan.
In 2015 the Sandiganbayan found Locsin and five others guilty of violating Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
In a video message posted yesterday in the Facebook account of his wife Mary Jane, Locsin stressed that only the Commission on Elections (Comelec) could disqualify him from running for mayor in the May 13 midterm elections, not the Supreme Court.
He urged the people of Janiuay not to be misled by his political opponents.
It was Janiuay vice mayor Joseph Anthony Lutero who bared on Wednesday that the Supreme Court issued an entry of judgment on Locsin’s case thru Librada Buena, Division Clerk of Court, on March 20, 2019 yet.
A friend of Locsin, former Agrarian Reform secretary Atty. Rene Villa, said yesterday the reported Supreme Court decision must be clarified because the former Janiuay mayor brought two matters to the high court regarding his Sandiganbayan case – one was about his Sandiganbayan conviction and the other was his appeal or petition for certiorari for Demurrer to Evidence.
From what he was told, said Villa, what the Supreme Court had so far decided on was the appeal or petition for certiorari for Demurrer to Evidence.
Even then, said Villa, Locsin remains a candidate for mayor. Due process requires a respondent in a case to receive the court decision, he stressed.
Also, he said, “It is not for the Supreme Court to tell voters nga disqualified sia.”
Locsin’s graft case stemmed from medicine purchases of the local government of Janiuay using P15 million from Sen. Vicente Sotto’s Priority Development Assistance Fund in 2001.
The medical supply contract was awarded to a supplier whose accreditation was suspended by the Department of Health thus making it supposedly unqualified to join the bidding.
Aside from Locsin, the Sandiganbayan also convicted Accountant Carlos Moreno Jr., Budget Officer Ramon Tirador, Treasurer Luzviminda Figueroa, Ricardo Minurtio, and businessman Rodrigo Villanueva.
The Sandiganbayan sentenced them to a jail term of from six to 10 years and perpetual disqualification from public office.
“The Court finds…conspiracy between accused public officials (and) members of the municipal Committee on Awards of Janiuay…as shown by their respective signatures in the Minutes of Meetings which awarded the subject procurement of medicines in favor of AM Europharma and Mallix Drug which gave undue advantage to accused Rodrigo Villanueva, owner and proprietor of said companies,” part of the anti-graft court’s decision read.
The 34-page Sandiganbayan decision dated Feb. 23, 2015 was penned by Associate Justice Rodolfo Ponferrada and concurred by First Division Chairman Efren dela Cruz and Associate Justice Rafael Lagos./PN
