Bandera, Apr. 2, 2019, Sandiganbayan Clears Dimaporo Of Graft.pdf

Sandiganbayan clears Dimaporo of graft THE Sandiganbayan has dismissed graft charges aganst tormer Lanao del

norte goverllor and incumbent 2nd Distri€t Rep. Abdullah Dimapoio

after.state prosecutors failed to prove his involvement in the

fertilier

fund scam.

"ln this

cas

e, the

Court finds that the prosecution has not presented _ sufficient proqf to show that accused Dimaporo exercised manifest par-

tiality and evident bad faith in allocarine the

subject fu nd to'LFI

(Lanao Foundation Incorporated) Any motiv€

'

of self interest or ill was not satisfactorily estabIished," the anti-graft court explained. "The p ro secuti on nerely relied on its claim that lFl is not qualified ro implement the project because of the latter\ financial and operational incapabiliry having an equrty of PhP t2,558.04 io order to impute bad faith and manifest partialiq/ on ac-

cused Dimaporo

in allo-

cating the funds to the

said NGO," the court added.

The Sandiganbay4n said the Department of Agriculture assured that the foundation had already shown the capability to deliver projects even

with the

said. issue. Witness Edwin Canios,

State Auditor for Region X. also reponed rhar all of

the farmer beneficiaries received the fertilizers-

The Sandiganbayan's

Second D ivisi

o

n last

March 28 granted Dimaporo's N&to challenge prosecution's evidence,

In

response, the aourt

said that the prosecution was not able to fullv es-

tablish that Dimaioro acted in bad faith when he released funds for the purchase of 10.000 bags of fertilizer ro LFI.

The hold departure

order issued again s t Dimaporo has since been

lifted and set aside, while bail bonds he posted have been ordered released.

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