CEBU CITY, Philippines — The anti-graft court has asked the Office of the Special Prosecutor, the prosecution arm of the Ombudsman, to comment on the appeal of former Daanbantayan Mayor Ma. Luisa “Malou” Loot for a retrial of her graft and malversation charges.
The Sandiganbayan Seventh Division heard last Friday, August 16, Loot’s camp’s motion for a new trial, which they submitted last Tuesday, August 13.
Before resolving on the appeal, Sandiganbayan has directed the prosecution panel to submit within ten days their comment on Loot’s petition.
Former Daanbantayan Mayor Malou Loot
Lawyer Neil Aaron Balili, Loot’s legal counsel, said they “hope that the honorable justices will see it our way,” and grant the motion.
The Sandiganbayan Seventh Division, in a decision promulgated last August 2, sentenced Loot and businessman Samuel Moralde to at least eight years in prison after finding them guilty of violating of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and malversation of public funds over a P500,000 assistance to a business group that Moralde headed.
Read more: Malou Loot, businessman gets prison term for graft, malversation of funds
If the motion for a new trial is granted, the August 2 decision would be set aside and the case will revert to the trial stage, Balili told CDN Digital on Sunday, August 18.
Balili said they have discovered new vital documents that they believed would merit his client an acquittal if presented in court.
Read more: Malou Loot’s camp files for retrial of graft case
The documents were not submitted earlier because the defense had trouble securing the documents due to the devastation of Typhoon Yolanda in the town in 2013.
“It was only just recently that we located a significant number of these vital and material pieces of evidence which were not yet considered by Sandiganbayan during the trial,” he added.
The case against Loot stemmed from the municipality’s grant of a P500,000 assistance on February 2007, in the form of a loan, to Moralde who represented RBA Quail Raisers Association.
Loot sat as town mayor for three terms from 2004 to 2013.
The Ombudsman claimed that the loan was irregular because RBA, at the time, was not an accredited Civil Society Organization. It also noted that the loan caused undue injury to the coffers of the town after Moralde failed to pay the loan. /elb