The Sandiganbayan has dismissed the 23 criminal charges filed against City Accountant Racquel L. Bautista and City Treasurer Roberto V. Viduya of Bislig City in Surigao del Sur for violation of their right to speedy disposition of cases.
Bautista and Viduya were charged with 23 counts of violations of Article 220 of the Revised Penal Code on the illegal use of public funds.
They asked the Sandiganbayan to dismiss the charges against them due to inordinate delay.
Granting their plea, the Sandiganbayan ruled: "The Office of the Ombudsman committed unreasonable, vexatious, capricious, oppressive, and inordinate delay in the conduct of the preliminary investigation, and as such violated the constitutional right to speedy disposition of cases of the accused-movants (Bautista and Viduya)."
While the Ombudsman claimed that it had a "steady stream" of cases to deal with, the anti-graft court said it should not be used as an excuse for not resolving cases in a timely manner.
The court noted that the fact-finding investigation was conducted from the filing of the complaint-affidavit on Feb. 1, 2016 until 2018, when the Office of the Ombudsman-Mindanao received the disbursement vouchers and other documents.
It said the Ombudsman then took another three years to eventually issue a Joint Order on Oct. 25, 2021 directing the accused-movants to submit their counter-affidavits, together with the affidavits of their witnesses, and other supporting documents. After that, it took another one year and seven months for the Ombudsman to determine the existence of probable cause, it also said.
"This Court is not convinced with the justification of the Office of the Ombudsman-Mindanao that it needed more time to evaluate the records culled from the fact-finding investigation. No proof was shown to support this allegation," the court pointed out.
The 11-page resolution was written by Associate Justice Bernelito R. Fernandez with the concurrence of Third Division Chairperson Associate Justice Karl B. Miranda and Associate Justice Ronald B. Moreno.