THE Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed the criminal charges filed against two former bank executives of the now defunct BankWise Inc. after the Department of Justice (DOJ) took more than a decade to indict them for violation of the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 7653 or The New Central Bank Act.
In a 16-page decision penned by Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier, the Court’s Second Division nullified the charges filed against Vicente J. Campa Jr. and Perfecto M. Pascua, former vice chairman and vice president of Bankwise, respectively, on the ground of inordinate delay.
The Court’s decision nullified for grave abuse of discretion the orders issued on August 13, 2019, October 1, 2019, and October 7, 2019 of the Regional Trial Court of Makati City denying petitioner’s plea for the dismissal of the case.
The petitioners sought the dismissal of the cases before the trial court on ground of inordinate delay.
They argued that the unreasonable length of the investigation before the DOJ violated their right to a speedy disposition of their cases as mandated under Section 16, Article III of the 1987 Constitution.
“Here, petitioners were unduly prejudiced by the 10-year delay because access to records and contact to witnesses could prove to be too difficult to effectively defend themselves in trial,” the High Tribunal pointed out.
“More, they were never informed or updated on the status of the investigation, depriving them of any opportunity to adequately prepare for any impending trial, mentally, physically, and even financially – especially considering their advanced age. In fact, petitioners mentioned that the delay made them believe that the proceedings had been terminated due to the sheer length of time that they were left hanging,” it added.
The case stemmed from the complaint filed on September 12, 2007, by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) before the DOJ against the officers of BankWise Inc., including petitioners and five others, for violation of Monetary Board Resolution 14601 in relation to Section 3 of RA 7653.
In the complaint, the BSP charged petitioners along with their co-accused with issuing unfunded manager’s checks and failing to present documents to support the bank’s disbursements in acquiring assets. After the preliminary investigation, the case was deemed submitted for resolution on August 29, 2008. However, the DOJ’s resolution finding probable cause to indict the petitions for the offense came out only after 10 years and five months since it was submitted for resolution.
Accordingly, the DOJ filed before the RTC, Makati City 11 informations against Campa and five against Pascua for violation of Monetary Board Resolution 1460 in relation to Section 3, RA 7653.
The SC noted that under the Rules on Criminal Procedure and the Manual for Prosecutors investigating officers and the prosecuting agency are given a maximum of 60 days from date of assignment to conclude preliminary investigations.
However, the DOJ took about 10 years and five months from the filing of the complaint on September 12, 2007, before it issued a resolution dated February 8, 2019 finding probable cause to indict petitioners.
“Clearly, this is way beyond the periods for investigation set forth under Section 3, Rule 112 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure and the Manual for Prosecutors,” the SC declared.
The Office of the Solicitor General, which represents the DOJ in the case, had admitted to the delay but attributed it to the changes in leadership in the DOJ during the course of the investigation, the complexity of the case, as well as the DOJ’s workload.
But, the SC said these circumstances do not justify the delay of 10 years in resolving the case.
The SC gave weight to the petitioners’ claim that their case was already submitted for resolution before the DOJ as early as August 29, 2008 and that there were no further proceedings or introduction of new evidence were made.
The Court also noted the manifestation by the DOJ that when the case got reassigned to Assistant State Prosecutor Vilma D. Sarmiento on January 23, 2019, she concluded the investigation in less than a month and finalized the DOJ Resolution on February8, 2019.
The SC pointed out that if it took Sarmiento only less than a month to resolve the case, then the 10 years and five months delay “was unaccounted for, unexplained and certainly inordinate.”