THE Sandiganbayan has dismissed the charges filed against former Government Service Insurance System president and now Cebu gubernatorial candidate Winston Garcia and 10 other officials over the alleged anomalous awarding of the GSIS electronic card (eCard) project in 2004.
The anti-graft court cited the Office of the Ombudsman’s failure to conduct the investigation and resolve the charges on time, as well as the prosecution’s failure to present sufficient evidence against the accused.
Sandiganbayan’s Second Division Justice Teresita Diaz-Baldos said the Ombudsman violated the respondents right to speedy disposition of cases.
“It is in criminal cases where the need for a speedy disposition of their cases is more pronounced. It is so, because in criminal cases, it is not only the honor and reputation but even the liberty of the accused is at stake,” she said.
Baldos’s ruling was approved by Associate Justices Napoleon Inoturan and Michael Fredercik Musngi.
Garcia said he was happy with the dismissal of the charges against him and his co-accused.
“I feel vindicated. That case against me and my co-accused was without any legal leg to stand on from day one, and now the Sandiganbayan has affirmed that,” he said in a press statement.
The Ombudsman earlier filed a graft case against Garcia and former GSIS officials Enriqueta Disuanco, executive vice president for operations; Benjamin Vivas Jr., senior vice president for information technology; and retired Supreme Court Justice Hermogenes Concepcion Jr., chairman of the board of trustees.
Also impleaded in the case were former GSIS trustees Elmer Bautista, Fulgencio Factoran, Florino Ibañez, Aida Nocete, Reynaldo Palmiery, Elenita Tumala-Martinez, and Leonora Vasquez-de Jesus.
The Ombudsman accused them of taking “advantage of their official positions through manifest partiality or evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence” when they awarded the GSIS eCard project to Union Bank of the Philippines in 2004 without complying with the requirements and procedures provided by law.
The accused were sued for violating Republic Act No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
The eCard, the GSIS said, is the most innovative government-issued identification card today since it is not only a GSIS membership ID card but is also a GSIS transactional card, discount card, disbursement card, ATM card, VISA debit card, hospitalization, medicine discount card, and tuition discount card.
The Sandiganbayan, however, noted that the case was pending with the Ombudsman for more than 10 years.
The complaint was filed before the Ombudsman on April 1, 2005 but it was elevated to the Sandiganbayan only on Sept. 2, 2015.
The anti-graft office informed the Sandiganbayan that they waited for the resolution of the investigation conducted by the House of Representatives over the same accusations. But the Sandiganbayan said the House’s probe was not a joint undertaking with the Ombudsman.
The court described the failure of the Ombudsman to act on the case on time as “capricious, vexatious, and prejudicial to the accused.”
Baldos said the Ombudsman was created under the constitution to be the “protector of the people,” and as such required to “act promptly on complaints.”
“This great responsibility cannot be simply brushed aside by ineptitude. The Ombudsman has the inherent duty not only to carefully go through the particulars of a case but also to resolve the same within the proper length of time,” she said.
Baldos also said the Ombudsman failed to present sufficient evidence to establish probable cause against the accused.