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THE Sandiganbayan anti-graft court has ordered Oriental Mindoro Gov. Alfonso Umali Jr. suspended for 90 days over a graft charge filed against him in 2004 claiming that he illegally released a P2.5-million loan to a private shipowner.

The court’s Fourth Division rejected Umali’s argument that he no longer could influence the investigation because the prosecutors had finished presenting evidence against him.

The court said suspension was mandatory in such cases, and it was meant to prevent public officials accused of corruption “from committing further acts of malfeasance while in office.

“The presumption is that, unless the accused is suspended, he may frustrate his prosecution or commit further acts of malfeasance or do both,” the court said.

Umali was accused of disbursing the loan when he was the provincial administrator. His co-accused were Oriental Mindoro Rep. Rodolfo Valencia, who was governor at the time, and then provincial board members Jose Leynes and Jose Enriquez and former Vice Gov. Pedrito Reyes.

Alfredo Atienza, the owner of the passenger vessel MV Ace, and who received the loan, was included in the suit.

The anti-graft court suspended all the accused on Sept. 9, 2008, after it rejected their arguments. It sentenced each of them to six to 10 years in jail and barred them from holding public office.

The court sustained the prosecution’s findings that the accused had acted in bad faith in lending Atienza P2.5 million from provincial funds to finance the repair, operation and maintenance of his ship.

Valencia had admitted he released the loan to help Atienza repair and maintain his roll-on, roll-off vessel, which he said the province had used in its recovery efforts in the aftermath of four strong typhoons that hit the province in 1993.

The defendants have appealed the decision.


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