A medical certificate issued by the Bacolod City Health Office stating that he is suffering from hypertension due to stress led the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division to reset the arraignment of the criminal case filed against Bacolod Mayor Monico Puentevella to May 22, when he failed to show up at the hearing yesterday.

The case involves the questionable Information Technology package worth about P26 million purchased from his Priority Development Assistance Fund when he was yet congressman of Bacolod City .

The Court, however, also denied the request of Puentevella to travel to Switzerland, as well as his motion to defer his arraignment due to his pending petition in the Supreme Court.

"How can Puentevella apply for travel to Switzerland when it will take him 14 hours to get there, and only an hour to the Sandiganbayan from Bacolod?" Councilor Jose Carlos Lopez said during the discussions at the SB 4th Division.

Meanwhile, his co-accused, Jesse Garcia, chairman of Merryland Publishing, who was present , pleaded not guilty during his arraignment yesterday.

Puentevella was admitted at the Bacolod Adventist Medical Center in Barangay Taculing, Bacolod City yesterday, Lopez said, quoting the mayor's lawyer, Redemptor Peig, who represented him in the hearing.

Peig submitted the medical certificate before Associate Justice Jose Hernandez and Justices Alex Quiros and Oscar Herrera, Jr., Lopez, who attended the hearing as a public official interested to know the truth about the case, said.

Ralph Sarmiento, also Puentevella's lawyer, confirmed that the Sandiganbayan has reset the arraignment to May 22, but did not give any details about Puentevella's reason for not showing up at his arraignment.

Hernandez questioned why Puentevella's medical certificate was issued by the City Health Office and not by the doctor supposed to be attending to him.

When it questioned Puentevella's lawyer, Lopez said the judge showed the medical certificate that was on long size bond paper and had the seal of the city.

The Sandiganbayan, earlier, denied for lack of merit , the omnibus motions filed by Puentevella and Garcia , seeking the reconsideration of the Court's resolution finding probable cause to issue the warrant of arrest against them, the deferment of their arraignment, and the suspension of further proceedings in the case,

The Court had also rejected the contention of Garcia that it should suspend the proceedings in this case, considering that Puentevella has a pending petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court assailing the finding of probable cause.

CONSPIRACY

The Sandiganbayan said the information filed in the case states that the accused, acting in conspiracy with one another, willfully, unlawfully and criminally and with evident bad faith and manifest partiality, procured IT packages at P400,000 each for a total of P26 million using the PDAF of Puentevella without the conduct of a public bidding as required under Executive Order No. 40, series of 2001 and RA No. 9184, thereby giving unwarranted benefits and undue advantage to Merrryland Publishing.

This also caused undue injury to the government and the public by depriving the government of the opportunity to get the most advantageous offer for the purchased items, resulting in the procurement of the overpriced IT packages, it said.*CGS

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