Ex-DA chief Lorenzo wants plunder charge dropped

Former Agriculture Secretary Luis Ramon P. Lorenzo has asked the Sandiganbayan Second Division to junk the plunder charge filed against him in connection with the P728 million fertilizer fund scam, one of the corruption scandals that rocked the Arroyo administration. In an 18-page reply, Lorenzo, through his lawyers, claimed the information filed by the prosecutors was defective because investigators from the Office of the Ombudsman conducted a preliminary investigation for graft and malversation and not for plunder. The reply was filed through Lorenzo’s lawyers Mario Luza Bautista, Luis Martin S. Clemente and Joseph Joemer C. Perez. “Necessarily, only those (graft and malversation) allegations were answered by Lorenzo in his counter-affidavit. He was not afforded the opportunity to file a counter-affidavit which would respond to an accusation of plunder, for the basic and simple reason that no allegations of plunder were made against him at the preliminary investigation. How then can it be said that he was afforded his right to due process?" the defense lawyers said. Lorenzo noted that based on the plunder charge, his liability was for “abandonment or negligence." He said this was incompatible with the elements of plunder that include an imputation of conspiracy among all the accused. “Negligence cannot possibly co-exist with conspiracy. In addition, the allegation of abandonment or negligence contradicts the nature of plunder, which is a heinous crime… committed with criminal intent," he said. The defense also challenged the propriety of the prosecution’s claim that a plunder defendant can still prove his innocence during trial as it stressed that plunder, a capital offense, is non-bailable. It said such assertion was “cruel and cold-hearted". “If Lorenzo would be subjected to trial, he would be incarcerated during such trial, which promises to be long and drawn-out, given the complexity of the case, the sheer volume of the records and the number of the accused. The State cannot take shortcuts, because in a non-bailable offense, the liberty of the accused is at stake," it said. As his motion is being considered by the Sandiganbayan, Lorenzo asked that the issuance of a warrant for his arrest be suspended in the meantime. The plunder case was filed in court last July 4 naming Lorenzo, former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn I. Bolante and former Asst. Secretary Ibarra T. C. Poliquit as principal defendants along with liquid fertilizer suppliers Jaime Paule, Marilyn Araos, Joselito Flordeliza, Marites Aytona, Jose Barredo and Leonicia Marco-Llarena. The defendants were accused of diverting a P728-million fund intended for poor farmers in 2004 to the campaign kitty of then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. — KBK, GMA News