Former vice president Jejomar C. Binay and his son, former Makati City mayor Jejomar Erwin S. Binay Jr., and 16 other persons have been acquitted of criminal charges filed over the construction of the P1.3 billion Makati Science High School (MSHS) from 2007 to 2013. In an 86-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Rafael R. Lagos and promulgated last Dec.
13, the Sandiganbayan Special Fifth Division granted the demurrer to evidence of the accused and ordered the cases against them dismissed “for insufficiency of evidence.” A demurrer to evidence is a pleading filed by an accused in a criminal case seeking the dismissal of the charges on alleged weakness of the prosecution's evidence. If the filing of the demurrer is allowed and is granted, the case is dismissed and the dismissal is to tantamount to an acquittal. They were charged with multiple counts of falsification of a public document under Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) and multiple counts of violating of Section 3(e) of Republic Act (RA) 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. The Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) stemmed from alleged irregularities in the architectural and engineering services for the four-storey dormitory that was awarded to Infiniti Architectural Works for P17,446,760 and alleged irregularities for the construction services for the six phases of the 10-storey MSHS building that was awarded to Hilmarc’s Construction Corporation for P1,336,282,212.“In sum, the prosecution’s evidence failed to prove all of the charges. The presumption of innocence in favor of an accused in a criminal case is a basic constitutional guarantee. It demands that the State must establish his guilt beyond reasonable doubt. To do so, the prosecution must rely on the strength of its evidence, not the weakness of his defense. Every reasonable doubt of his guilt entitles him to an acquittal
Binay Acquittal Makati Science High School Corruption Philippines
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