Corruption case vs former Disini co-accused stays

THE Sandiganbayan has thrown out a motion from defendant Dominico Borja, a former executive of the Herdis Management and Investment Corp., seeking the dismissal of a criminal charge for allegedly involving former strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos in an unlawful transaction 42 years earlier.

In a July 26, 2024 resolution penned by Associate Justice Michael Frederick L. Musngi, the anti-graft court’s Fourth Division overruled the defendant’s assertion that the case should have been dismissed outright on the ground of prescription and for inordinate delay on the part of the Office of the Ombudsman.

Associate Justices Lorifel Lacap Pahimna and Juliet M. Manalo-San Gaspar concurred.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed the case in 2013 alleging that the Herdis officials induced Marcos to accept four billion shares of The Energy Corporation (TEC) and two and a half billion shares of Vulcan Industrial and Mining Corporation (VIMC) in March 1982 despite knowing that the Chief Executive was barred by law from having financial interests in the said firms.

Originally named co-defendants were the late businessman Herminio Disini, his cousin Jesus Disini, and Herdis officers Angelo Manahan, Jerry Orlina, Alfredo Velayo, and Borja.

Herminio Disini passed away in 2014 while the case against Jesus Disini was dismissed by the court on the strength of his immunity agreement with the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) signed in February 16, 1989 in exchange for cooperating in the government investigation into irregularities attending the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) deal with US contractors Westinghouse and Burns and Roe.

Unable to trace the whereabouts of the other accused, the Sandiganbayan ordered the case archived in March 2019 but issued alias warrants of arrest against the remaining defendants.

On May, 17, 2024, the court finally acquired jurisdiction over Borja after he was arrested.

In his motion, the defendant protested that the case remained active even after more than 40 years saying he is now 75 years old and the passage of time had already deprived him of the chance to put up an adequate defense since documents pertaining to the questioned transaction as