The Sandiganbayan Seventh Division has dismissed three graft cases against five members of the Cebu City Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), ruling that the prosecution failed to sufficiently allege facts constituting an offense under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Details of the Case
In a resolution, the anti-graft court granted the motions to quash filed by Dominic Dino, Janeses Ponce, Leizl Calamba, Conrado Ordesta III, and Lyndon Bernardo Basan. The charges stemmed from the 2021 awarding of multi-million-peso solid waste management contracts to three private firms: Jomara Konstruckt Corp., ACM Hauling Services, and ARN Central Waste Management Inc. State prosecutors had argued that these contracts caused undue injury to the government and gave unwarranted benefits to the contractors.
Court's Rationale
The court found that the prosecution relied heavily on listing broken administrative procurement rules rather than proving criminal intent. It emphasized that simply violating government procurement procedures does not automatically translate to a criminal violation under Republic Act (RA) 3019. The defense successfully argued that procurement guidelines are meant to govern administrative processes, not serve as penal laws defining criminal offenses.
The Sandiganbayan noted that the charges failed to meet the constitutional requirement of clearly informing the accused of the nature and cause of the crimes they allegedly committed. Associate Justice Pahimna stated: "While the amended Informations mentioned the elements of violation of Section 3(e) of RA 3019, the prosecution failed to explicitly indicate the acts and facts how the accused committed the offenses charged."
By applying Rule 117 of the Rules of Court, which allows for dismissal of flawed charges even after the prosecution has been given a chance to amend them, the Sandiganbayan fully dropped all three criminal cases. The ruling effectively concludes the matter for the committee members, rendering all other pending motions related to the cases moot.
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama had been cleared of graft charges. The Sandiganbayan Seventh Division's June 2, 2026 resolution dismissed the graft cases against the five BAC members. We have updated the article accordingly and regret the error.
