The Sandiganbayan has denied the plea of Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. to be provided with the specific offenses he is accused of committing in connection with the alleged P900-million Malampaya Fund scam.
In the same ruling contained in a 75-page resolution, the anti-graft court’s Special Third Division denied the motion to dismiss filed by Andaya, Masui City Mayor Nasser Pangandaman Jr. and alleged pork-barrel-scam queen Janet Lim Napoles.
Andaya, Pangandaman, Napoles and 22 other people are facing 97 counts each of graft and misuse of public funds through the falsification of public documents.
They are accused of diverting P900 million from the Malampaya funds allocated by the Budget department to the Department of Agrarian Reform in 2009, and in the process using 12 Janet Lim Napoles-led non-government organizations as conduits.
In denying Andaya’s plea, the Sandiganbayan said: “an objective and careful reading of the 194 information in these cases reveals that there is nothing ambiguous or confusing in the allegations therein against him.”
Meanwhile, Pangandaman, who was then the Agrarian Reform secretary, complained about the alleged inability of the Ombudsman to file the case against him, thus his right to a speedy disposition of the cases was violated.
But the Sandiganbayan said the time that the Ombudsman spent in pursuing the case was only two years and two months from the time the complaint was filed before the Field Investigation Office in October 2014 until their indictment on Dec. 2, 2017.
