By Macon Ramos Araneta

THE Sandiganbayan yesterday junked the motions of former Makati City Mayor Elenita Binay, seeking the dismissal of her graft charges for alleged involvement in the rigged bidding and overpricing of office fixtures of the new city hall.

In a four-page resolution signed by Associate Justice Rodolfo Ponferrada and concurred in by Associate Justices Gregory Ong and Jose Hernandez of the Fourth Division, Binay’s motion for clarification or for reconsideration dated March 20, 2007, was denied.

The pleadings sought to clarify Binay’s Oct. 2, 2006 motion for reconsideration on the dismissal of the original information against her and her co-accused.

In the clarificatory motion, she argued that “with the tack taken by the prosecution submitting an amended information which changes the complexion of its original case which it has abandoned for the prosecution in consequence has not resolved squarely the motion for reconsideration dated Oct. 2, 2006.”

But the Sandiganbayan said there was nothing ambiguous in the memorandum issued by the Office of the Ombudsman on Nov. 28, 2006, replying to the Oct. 2 memorandum.

Ponferrada said the Ombudsman had sustained the prosecution panel for the continued prosecution of the case against Binay and her co-accused.

While there was an amended information filed by the prosecution which the accused claimed as another cause for the dismissal of the graft charges, the anti-graft court said it was not admitted by the court due to the exclusion of accused private persons.

“It is but proper that the original information which was filed against accused-movants [Binay, et al.] remains and should not be dismissed,” stressed Ponferrada.

Besides, Ponferrada added, “the issue of whether or not the prosecution has no case against accused-movants under the original information, may be the proper subject of a motion to quash under Rule 117 of the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure but not in the subject motion for reconsideration.

Binay’s co-accused was Ernesto Aspillaga, former head of the General Services Department of the City of Makati.

Records showed that on Oct. 2, 2006, the Office of the Special Prosecutor filed charges against Binay, Aspillaga, and private company officers Li Yee Shing, Jason Li, Vivian Edurise, as well as several “John Does and Jane Does” with violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019, otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Shing, Li and Edurise are all executives of Office Gallery International Inc. at 153 San Francisco St., Mandaluyong City, the private firm which Binay and Aspillaga had allegedly conspired with in the rigging.

The anti-graft court said Binay and Aspillaga conspired to rig the public bidding on Sept. 7, 1999 in favor of Office Gallery for the purchase of office furniture and partitions for the new city hall amounting to P13,253,587.61.

This resulted in the excess purchases and /or overpricing of the said partitions and furniture for P3,604,377.10.

The court said that from December 1999 to February 2000, Binay, then Makati mayor, and Aspillaga, the head of General Services Department, and several “John Does and Jane Does”, while in the performance of their official functions, committed offenses in relation to their office and took advantage of their official positions.

The government officials and employees also acted in “evident bad faith, manifested partiality or gross inexcusable negligence, conspiring and confederating” with the corporate officers of Gallery International, said the Sandiganbayan.