He’s been under the radar — so much so that we almost forgot that he’s actually another senator with a graft case.
“Sen. Lito Lapid on Monday, January 11, sought the dismissal of his graft case in the Sandiganbayan over his supposed role in the PHP728-million fertilizer fund scam, saying the unreasonable delay in the resolution of the case violated his constitutional rights,” reports Marlon Ramos in Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The report recalled: “Lapid is accused of approving the purchase of 3,880 liters of liquid fertilizers, which the Office of the Ombudsman claimed was overpriced by PHP4.3 million, when he was still the governor of Pampanga.”
The Ombudsman explained that the amount “was part of the multimillion-peso fertilizer distribution project, which was allegedly used to bankroll the campaign of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the 2004 general elections.”
In his 25-page motion, Lapid also asked the Sandiganbayan’s 1st Division to postpone his scheduled arraignment on Jan. 14 pending the resolution of his petition.
Lapid, as the report indicates, believes that “setting aside the Ombudsman’s November 2015 resolution finding probable cause to indict him would ‘finally put an end to his decade-long search for a nonexistent probable cause.'”
