The Sandiganbayan has granted former budget undersecretary Mario Relampagos’ petition for a demurrer to evidence over the 11 counts of graft filed against him for the release of P108 million to a lawmaker.
Relampagos was not proven to have conspired with his co-accused, ex-Masbate lawmaker Rizalina Lanete, in the release of the “pork barrel fund” to the latter and businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the court said.
A demurrer to evidence means the accused did not see it fit to present his or her own evidence to the court in the face of weak evidence presented by the prosecution. Its grant by a court junks the case or cases against an accused.
Lanete was charged for funneling the money from 2007 to 2009 into the Social Development Program for the Farmers Foundations Inc. of Napoles. The Ombudsman filed the case in 2015.
“The prosecution failed to rebut the presumption of regularity of official acts of accused Relampagos in allegedly processing and issuing the SAROs (Special Allotment Release Orders) and NCAs (Notices of Cash Allocation) relative to the PDAF of then representative Seachon-Lanete,” the 118-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Lorifel Lacap Pahimna read.
It noted that Relampagos was not even the signatory of the subject SAROs and NCAs, which allowed Lanate’s pork barrel allocations to be released.