Cebu 3rd District Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia has lost her bid at the Sandiganbayan to dismiss two counts of graft and one count of technical malversation against her, after a special division created voted 3-2 to deny her appeal.
The charges arose from the Balili property which has hounded Garcia since 2010 when she was still governor of Cebu.
In the Sandiganbayan where each division consists of three justices, the vote must be unanimous to be effective.
In case of a dissent, the division will invite two additional members chosen via the drawing of lots.
The winning vote is determined by majority.
Garcia filed a motion to dismiss before the Second Division, where she argued the longtime prosecutors took to investigate and have the cases tried violated her constitutional right to speedy trial.
The complaints were filed against Garcia in June 2010 shortly after she was reelected governor of Cebu.
The complaints accused her of malversing public funds through the purchase of the Balili properties which turned out to be submerged under water.
There are no clear mathematical standards to determine what constitutes inordinate delay, although the Supreme Court had recently declared that when computing the period, the fact-finding phase at the Ombudsman level should be excluded from the count.