Clamor for PDAF special court grows

MANILA, Philippines – Leaders of civil society groups urged  the Supreme Court on Tuesday, July 1, to order the creation of a special division within the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan to exclusively try the pork scam cases.

In a letter-petition, lawyer Marlon Manuel of the Alternative Law Groups and Vincent Lazatin of the Transparency and Accountability Network asked the High Court to “take judicial notice of the historic and unprecedented nature” of the cases.

Attached to their petition to the court was a separate online petition that had at least 3,000 signatures, urging the SC to do the same.

The two petitioners cited the SC’s designation of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221 as the special court for the Maguindanao massacre cases. This effectively exempted the court from receiving new cases to be able to focus on resolving the cases in the 2009 massacre that killed 58.

“The creation of a special Sandiganbayan division will allow such court to hear, try, and decide, with dispatch the PDAF cases, conduct marathon trials, and adopt other measures for the speedy resolution of cases,” their letter read.

The court is now hearing the plunder and graft cases of Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr, and Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, as well as their co-accused businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

The 3 opposition senators are accused of knowingly and financially gaining from allowing their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel to be diverted to fake projects of dubious non-governmental organizations controlled by Napoles. They have been charged with plunder and various counts of graft.

It was Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales who first requested the SC through a letter to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno for at least 2 Sandiganbayan divisions that will hear and decide on the PDAF cases.

Morales said the “national magnitude” and “far-reaching consequences” of the cases were reason for the special divisions.

The SC, however, is still deciding on the request. It has previously asked and already received comments from both the court and the accused on the matter.

The Sandiganbayan and the 3 accused senators nixed the request, saying that the court can handle the cases of “national magnitude” with or without the special court.

In his comment to the SC, however, Revilla’s aide and lawyer Richard Cambe said there should be 3 special divisions that would conduct daily trials, going beyond office hours to fast-track the resolution of the PDAF cases.

Currently, the PDAF cases have been consolidated based on the principal accused. Enrile’s cases are handled by the Sandiganbayan 3rd division, Estrada’s by the 5th division, and Revilla’s by the 1st division.

Court observers have noted the conflicting schedule of hearings in the 3 divisions, which make it hard for lawyers to appear on behalf of their accused clients in all of their cases in the different divisions.

The cases of the 3 senators have common co-accused and common witnesses.

In a recent hearing, however, Justice Roland Jurado told lawyers who raised the issue before the court that it is incumbent upon their respective law firms to substitute them for representation in the simultaneous hearing. – Rappler.com