Sandiganbayan suspends Antique town mayor for graft

The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division has ordered the 90-day suspension of Caluya, Antique Mayor Genevieve Gumban Lim-Reyes due to her pending graft charges and violation of the Coconut Preservation Act for her involvement in clearing and coconut tree cutting operations in barangay Tinogboc in 2014 that also caused injury to a person during the activity.

On February 28, 2014, Lim-Reyes reportedly caused injury to Juliet Ramos by ordering the clearing operations or the cutting of 245 coconut trees that are planted and cultivated in a five-hectare land occupied by Ramos in Brgy. Tinogboc, Caluya.

She did so “without compliance with the legal processes of a prior public consultation and judicial recovery of possession, absent a permit to cut the said coconut trees from the Philippine Coconut Authority.”

In doing so, Lim-Reyes also violated Ramos’ civil rights and cost her the value of 245 coconut trees and crops.

Lim-Reyes was accused of violating Section 3(e) of R.A. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act as well as Section 5 in relation to Section 9 of R.A. 8048. The prosecution filed a motion to suspend pendente lite on July 10, 2018, which Lim-Reyes refuted on July 31 with an opposition. She argued that the charges filed against her are invalid because the alleged coconut tree cutting violation does not involve graft and fraud.

She claimed that she may be convicted of both crimes in a single Information and highlighted Section 13 of Rule 110 of the Rules of Court, which states that an Information must charge only one offense.

However, the court was not swayed by her reasoning. “The Rule prohibits the filing of an Information which charges more than one offense, however, in the present case, the prosecution charged the accused with two offenses, contained in two separate Informations, with each Information charging only one offense, which makes the allegation of the accused untenable,” the resolution read.

The court reiterated that the suspension it will impose is not a penalty, since it is simply part of judicial proceedings. “In fact, if acquitted, the accused official will be entitled to reinstatement and to the salaries and benefits which [she] failed to receive during [her] suspension,” the resolution added.

SOURCE: MANILA BULLETIN