The Supreme Court (SC) had cleared the former manager of the Administrative and Finance department of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) of graft charges in connection with a 2009 supply contract.
In its decision recently published online, the court’s First Division granted the petition filed by Lynna Chung and set aside the Ombudsman’s charges that she failed “to ensure that the payments were made in accordance with the terms of the contract” of the PNR’s procurement of rail fastenings, clips, and insulators from Pandrol Korea Limited (Pandrol Korea) worth USD7.9 million.
The procurement was for the repair of rail tracks and replacement parts in Quezon Province and Bicol Region.
The court noted that the Ombudsman’s resolution itself declared that there was no substantial evidence on the alleged shortage of delivery to PNR of Pandrol products.
“This raises the question then that if all had been delivered to PNR, where is the undue injury to the government?” the court said.
The tribunal said while it has a policy of non-interference in the Ombudsman’s exercise of its constitutionally mandated powers, “this should be weighed against the purpose of a preliminary investigation, which is securing the innocent against hasty, malicious and oppressive prosecution, and protecting one from an open and public accusation of crime from the trouble, expense, and anxiety of a public trial”.
“The State must be protected as well from useless and expensive trials” and a finding of probable cause in the preliminary stages of a case “should not be enough reason to proceed with the trial of the case which, in every indication, stands on shaky grounds,” the SC ruled.
While Chung was among the members of the PNR Bids and Awards Committee (PNR-BAC), she inhibited from the proceedings because she is the adoptive mother of Jaewoo Chung, the Manila liaison officer of Pandrol Korea.
Still, Chung was included in the Ombudsman charges, along with former PNR General Manager Manuel Andal and officials Rafael Mosura Jr., Edgardo Remonte, Jose Marayag, and Constantino Domingo.
The SC said “while it may appear that the acts of all the defendants in this case are connected in that they sprang from the same transactions, the act taken against petitioner (Chung) is distinct and severable from the acts of her co-defendants”.
In January, the Sandiganbayan convicted Andal for two counts of graft for unlawfully entering into contracts with Pandrol Korea and Nikka Trading without authorization from proper authorities and despite knowledge of irregularities.
Andal was sentenced to eight years and a month up to 12 years in prison, with perpetual disqualification from holding public office. He was also ordered to indemnify the government PHP86.5 million.
The case started in January 2016 when the Ombudsman Field Office filed a complaint against the PNR-BAC, including Chung, and the PNR Board of Directors for alleged violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, citing “unusually hasty payments” to the firm and a delivery shortage apparent from importation documents of 70,000 rail clips.
The PNR deal with Pandrol involved 170,000 sets of rail fastenings at a unit cost of USD44.58 per set or a total of USD7.624 million and 50,000 pieces of clips and insulators at a unit cost of USD3.90 per piece for an aggregate price of USD195,000.
Pandrol Korea owns the patents of certain types of rail fastenings and does not have a sub-dealer in the Philippines.
The prices indicated in the BAC resolution were based on the quotation from K.B. Hong of Pandrol Korea that Andal had requested.
Source: Philippines News Agency
