THE Sandiganbayan Third Division has granted the motion of former Baliwag municipal mayor Carolina Dellosa to submit three public documents for forensic examination by experts as part of her defense in a pending graft charge.
In a resolution, the anti-graft court’s Third Division ordered the custodians of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) Resolution No. 15 s. 2014, disbursement voucher (DV) No. 101-2014-9-519 and the September 4, 2014 purchase order (PO) to submit the original documents to the National Bureau of investigation.
Likewise, the NBI Questioned Documents Division was given a five-day period to comment and 30 days to conduct an examination of the documents and to submit a report to the court upon its completion.
The defendant was reminded that all expenses incurred by such an examination is on her account.
Dellosa was accused of unlawfully approving the purchase of a P1.2 million sports utility vehicle from a local distributor in 2014 through direct procurement and without going through public bidding as required by RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.
The defendant said she merely acted in good faith on BAC Resolution No. 15, hence any irregularity must lie with the committee.
The Office of the Ombudsman, however, argued that the former mayor’s actions gave unwarranted preference or advantage to the supplier.
