Marcoleta Arraignment for Graft Charges Set July 22

MANILA, Philippines — The arraignment and pretrial of Sen. Rodante Marcoleta and his co-accused, Joseph Espiritu for violation of a presidential decree that prohibits government officials from receiving, and private individuals from conferring gifts were set by the Sandiganbayan Third Division on Wednesday, July 22. The Third Division published the arraignment and pretrial schedule at the anti-graft court website on Tuesday. Arraignment marks the formal start of the criminal trial proceedings, requiring the accused to appear in court where the charges against them will be read before entering a guilty and not guilty plea. Marcoleta, who is detained in the New Quezon City jail in Barangay Payatas last week, faces plunder and three counts of violation of Presidential Decree (PD) No. 46. Aside from the PD No. 46 case, the Third Division is also handling the plunder case of Marcoleta, Espiritu and two other donors over a P75 million campaign donation the senator received while he was an incumbent party-list lawmaker, which, according to state prosecutors, was not declared in the senator’s financial and campaign disclosures Of that amount, P20 million allegedly came from Espiritu, while his co accused, former Rep. Mike Defensor and businessman Aristotle Viray donated P30 million and P25 million, respectively. The other two counts of Marcoleta’s PD No. 46 cases are handled by the First and Fourth Divisions. Viray is named as Marcoleta’s co-accused under the First Division, while Defensor is the senator’s co-accused under the Fourth Division. (with reports from Andre Esguerra, intern) /gsg