The Sandiganbayan dismissed Tuesday filed graft case against former senator Lito Lapid pertaining to alleged purchase of overpriced fertilizers.
September 30, 2016, a resolution from the anti-graft court's First Division granted Lapid's motion dropping the case due to delays in the Ombudsman's preliminary investigation.
The court said that the Ombudsman is duty bound to prove the delay was reasonable.
"The prosecution clearly failed to hurdle this burden since no plausible explanation was given to justify the delay in the Ombudsman's preliminary investigation" the Ombudsman said.
Lapid said it took the Ombudsman five years or from 2006 to 2011 to finish its field investigation alone in his motion to dismiss.
It took another three years for the Ombudsman in the conduct of preliminary investigation before issuing a resolution for Lapid’s indictment in year 2014, then a year after filed a case in the Sandiganbayan.
State prosecutors resonated that the delays were due to huge records of participants and records involved in the case.
The court rejected this argument.
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