Manila – A Sandiganbayan court has affirmed the 90-day suspension against Datu Sajid Islam Uy Ampatuan, mayor of Shariff Saydona Mustapha town in Maguindanao, in relation to the P72-million malversation, graft and falsification of public documents charges.
The anti-graft court’s sixth division junked Ampatuan’s argument in his motion for reconsideration – that he was not given the opportunity to participate in the preliminary investigation since an examination of the records shows otherwise.
“During the preliminary investigation, the Office of the Ombudsman afforded the respondents the opportunity to file their counter-affidavits. Among the respondents who filed their counter-affidavit was accused Ampatuan,” the Sandiganbayan said.
“Clearly, he was given the opportunity to participate and actually participated in the preliminary investigation. Wherefore, accused Ampatuan’s motion to reconsider the resolution dated Oct. 1, 2019 is hereby denied for lack of merit,” it added.
The Sandiganbayan also furnished the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) a copy of its decision for the implementation of the 90-day suspension order on Ampatuan.
The suspension against Ampatuan would automatically be lifted upon the expiration of the 90-day period from the implementation of the resolution, the anti-graft court noted in its verdict.
Ampatuan is facing 128 counts of falsification of public documents and four counts each of malversation of public funds and graft charges on the allegation that he and his co-accused “caused undue injury to the government.”
The cases against Ampatuan stemmed from the P72 million worth of public funds that was allegedly used to purchase construction and lumber materials for the school building repair – a purchase that turned out to be “non-existent.”/PN
