The Sandiganbayan Third Division has denied former vice president Jejomar Binay Sr.’s appeal for the dismissal of his criminal case in connection with the alleged overpriced P2.28-billion Makati City parking building.
The anti-graft court also denied the same motion from Hilmarc’s Construction board chairman Efren Canlas.
The Third Division denied Binay’s urgent motion to quash for lack of merit.
“After an assiduous evaluation of the arguments raised by the accused-movants in their respective motions to quash, together with the oppositions thereto of the prosecution, the court finds the said motions bereft of merit,” the Sandiganbayan said in its 53-page resolution.
The court sets Binay's arraignment on Feb. 23 at 1:30 p.m.
Binay earlier appealed the dismissal of his case, saying the alleged overpriced building project does not constitute a crime.
The Ombudsman earlier filed a complaint against Binay and other Makati officials for implementing five phases of the project from 2007 to 2013 without the approved design standards, contract plans, agency cost estimates, detailed engineering and programs of work.
Binay was charged with four counts of graft, one count of malversation, and nine counts of falsification of public documents. Similarly, his son, dismissed Makati City mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr., was charged with two counts of graft and six counts of falsification of public documents.
The prosecution alleged that Binay fabricated newspapers, affidavits of publication, and Bids and Awards Committee resolutions to commit the crime. But Binay said these and other accusations presented were not mentioned the case information.
But the court said: “To be sure, accused Binay Sr.’s insistence that conspiracy ‘must be shown to exist as clearly and convincingly as the commission of the offense itself’ is true only during the trial of the case and not as to the manner of alleging the same in the criminal information.”
“The determination of whether conspiracy indeed attended the commission of the complained acts is a matter that should be established during the trial of these criminal cases,” it added.
This developed as the anti-graft court said Binay's petition for certiorari to suspend the proceedings before the Supreme Court will not affect the case with the absence of a temporary restraining order. Binay himself admitted the lack of a TRO, the court said.