InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines -- Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia posted Friday P90,000 bail for graft charges filed against her for the allegedly anomalous purchase in 2008 of a 25-hectare property.
Garcia, who has been named a senatorial candidate of the United Nationalist Alliance next year, again slammed the motive and timing of the case filed before the Sandiganbayan by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.
Earlier, UNA described the case against Garcia as “political harassment.”
Garcia filed a motion to dismiss the case but said she is ready to face accusers and prove her innocence.
In a resolution signed July 13, 2012, Morales found probable cause to indict Garcia for violating Section 3 (g) of Republic Act No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and for technical malversation.
Morales also found probable cause to indict Garcia, Cebu provincial board member Juan Bolo, Cebu Provincial Appraisal Committee (CPAC) members Anthony Sususco, Roy Salubre and Eulogio Pelayre, provincial budget officer Emme Gingoyon, and private respondents Romeo Balili and Amparo Balili for violating Section 3(e) of RA 3019.
The other respondents posted P30,000 bail.
The case stemmed from three separate complaints filed in 2010 by Manuel Manuel, Crisologo Saavedra, and the Public Assistance and Corruption Prevention Office of the Ombudsman Visayas over the purchase by the Cebu provincial government of the Balili property in Naga, Cebu.
The Memorandum of Agreement dated April 21, 2008 covered eleven parcels of land with a total area of 249,246 square meters and a purchase price of P400 per square meter, or a total of P99,698,400, of which P98,926,800 has already been paid.
In the MOA, the purchase was described as a “good opportunity for the Province of Cebu to develop and cater to the needs of any interested investors.”
However, portions of the property were found to be beneath the sea.
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