THE Sandiganbayan has set aside an order of the Cainta Regional Trial Court suspending proceedings in the corruption case against former Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) director general Jeremiah Belgica and four other agency officials.
The anti-graft court’s Sixth Division issued a ruling dated August 18, 2025 declaring that the Cainta RTC “acted with grave abuse of discretion when it suspended the proceedings on the ground of prejudicial question,” where the outcome of a pending case before the Supreme Court can impact the charge against the defendants for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
The 29-page decision penned by Associate Justice Sarah Jane T. Fernandez, sustained the stand of prosecutors from the Office of the Ombudsman that there is no legal basis to suspend the proceedings since the resolution of SC cases NewsNet vs. National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and NOW Telecom Company (NOW Tel) vs. NTC has no bearing on the subject of the criminal case.
Associate Justices Kevin Narce B. Vivero and Lord A. Villanueva concurred.
Belgica’s co-defendants in the graft charge are ARTA deputy director general Eduardo Bringas, division chief Sheryl Pura-Sumagui, and directors Jedrek Ng and Melamy Salvadora-Asperin.
They were accused of giving unwarranted benefit, preference or advantage to NOW Telecom when ARTA issued an Order of Automatic Approval dated March 1, 2021 that gave the said telco 3G mobile frequencies, even if the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) had previously assigned the same frequencies to Dito National Telecommunity Inc. (DITO Telecoms).
Prosecutors further noted that NOW Tel was ineligible to be awarded the said frequencies since it had a defective application due to unpaid Supervision and Regulation Fee (SRF) and Spectrum User Fee (SUF), which disqualifies it as a recipient.
The Cainta RTC, in an October 7, 2024 order, denied the Motion to Quash filed by the accused ARTA officials but approved Bringas’s motion to suspend proceedings.
According to the RTC, both cases pending before the High Court involve ARTA’s jurisdiction, specifically the question of whether ARTA’s resolution can supersede NTC’s authority in granting the disputed 3G frequencies.
The Sandiganbayan took the contrary view, noting that the issues in the civil cases before the SC “are not intimately related” to the issues attending the criminal case before the RTC.
“Furthermore, the issue in the criminal case does not concern ARTA’s authority to issue the resolution and Order of Automatic Approval, but rather the regularity of the issuance thereof,” the Sandiganbayan said.
It stressed that the outcome of the SC cases will not affect the graft case against the ARTA officials pending before the RTC.
