(SANTI SAN JUAN/MB FILE PHOTO)
Senator Rodante Marcoleta on Monday, Aug. 3, declined to enter a plea during the arraignment of one of the three criminal cases filed against him for alleged violation of Presidential Decree (PD) No. 46, or the anti-gift law, in connection with the alleged P75 million in undeclared donations he received while he was still serving as a congressman.
Marcoleta’s counsel, Moises Tolentino Jr., told the Sandiganbayan First Division that the senator was declining to enter a plea due to “other pending petitions before the Supreme Court.”
“The accused, Senator Rodante Marcoleta, would like to inform the court that since there are pending remedies [before] the Supreme Court, he refuses to enter a plea for today’s arraignment,” Tolentino told the First Division.
The Sandiganbayan then entered a plea of “not guilty” on Marcoleta’s behalf.
“However, the court enters a plea of ‘not guilty’ on the part of accused Marcoleta,” Associate Justice Maria Theresa V. Mendoza-Arcega, chairperson of the First Division, said.
Meanwhile, Marcoleta’s co-accused, businessman Aristotle Viray, pleaded “not guilty.”
Prosecutors alleged that Viray donated P20 million to Marcoleta while the latter was still serving as a party-list representative.
On July 22, Marcoleta pleaded “not guilty” to the plunder charge and one count of violating PD No. 46 before the Sandiganbayan Third Division.
The arraignment proceeded after Marcoleta’s camp withdrew its motion to quash the plunder case.
On July 3, the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) filed a plunder case, a non-bailable offense, before the anti-graft court against Marcoleta over the alleged P75 million in undeclared donations he received while he was still serving as a congressman, along with three separate criminal cases for alleged violation of PD No. 46 against the senator and his alleged donors.