Lawmen fail to arrest Padaca in Isabela town

By Charlie Lagasca 

CAUAYAN CITY, Isabela.  Authorities reportedly tried to serve the Sandiganbayan’s warrant of arrest against former Isabela governor Grace Padaca at her residence here on Tuesday.

           

However, Padaca was reportedly not around when a joint team of the police and National Bureau of Investigation attempted to serve the arrest warrant against her at her house in Barangay District 2.

           

Last month, the Sandiganbayan ordered Padaca’s arrest in connection with a P25-million malversation case filed against her in 2007 by former Isabela second district congressman Santiago Respicio. 

           

Earlier, Padaca said she did not post P70,000 bail, as her lawyers would question the anti-graft court’s action before the Supreme Court .

           

Two other respondents in the case, Dionisio Pine, manager of the foundation where Padaca channeled the questioned fund, and former Roxas town councilor and now Vice Mayor Servando Soriano have posted bail.  

           

Another respondent, former provincial legal officer Johnas Lamonera, died of cancer last year.

           

In a 45-page petition, Padaca asked the SC to annul and reverse the resolutions issued by the Office of the Ombudsman dated Jan. 11 and Feb. 17, 2011, which found probable cause to file graft charges against her and her co-accused.

           

Padaca was charged for allegedly favoring a private organization, the Roxas town-based Economic Development for Western Isabela and Northern Luzon Foundation Inc. (EDWINFLI), in the award of a P25-million rice project for local farmers.

           

The amount was part of the P35-million loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines for Isabela’s Priority Agricultural Modernization Project or Priority Hybrid Rice Program. 

           

Respicio alleged that the 2006 memorandum of agreement bet-ween the Padaca administration and EDWINFLI to manage the fund was grossly detrimental to the government.

           

Lawyer Bernard Olalia, former Isabela chapter president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, earlier said Padaca’s posting bail would mean that she had accepted jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan, causing the case against her to move on, even if she may later seek to file a motion for certiorari before the SC.

           

In her defense, Padaca said the fund disbursement was aboveboard, as it had the imprimatur of the provincial board, then headed by vice governor Ramon Reyes who earlier had cleared her of any irregularity.

           

“The hybrid rice program was a booming success and the lives of the Isabela farmers (who benefited from the project) and their families changed for the better. It truly served its purpose in improving their lives,” she said in an earlier statement.