The Sandiganbayan has denied the Ombudsman's bid to revive the corruption trial against ex-Pampanga lawmaker Zenaida Ducut in relation to the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam due to her mental health condition.
The anti-graft court Seventh Division said Ducut is incompetent to stand trial, citing findings of doctors from the National Center for Mental Health, which found that the accused suffers from a neurocognitive disorder classified as vascular dementia.
"Given the current state of accused Ducut's mental problem, she is still unable to intelligently participate and defend herself from the charges she is facing. Consequently, the charges against her must remain archived," the Sandiganbayan ruled in a 15-page resolution.
Ducut is a co-accused, on graft, malversation of public funds, and direct bribery involving P3 million of the latter's pork barrel funds in 2007 channeled to non-government organization associated and controlled by the alleged PDAF mastermind Janet Lim Napoles to implement projects, which turned out to be "ghost" or non-existent.
Graft probers said Ducut, former chairperson of the Energy Regulatory Commission, stood as the erstwhile lawmaker's bagwoman.
Back in 2020, Ducut sought to suspend the proceedings, claiming she was "unfit" and "incompetent" to stand court trial on the grounds that she had "impaired cognitive abilities and diminished capacity.
Proceedings suspended
Subsequently, in June 2022, the Sandiganbayan suspended the proceedings owing to her illness.
Last October, the Ombudsman's prosecutors sought to revive Ducut's criminal charges, asserting she is fit to stand trial, citing a medical report from the NCMH.
In an effort to uphold their claims, the Ombudsman's prosecutors asserted that Ducut failed to sufficiently substantiate that "she is not coherent enough to provide her counsel with the necessary/relevant information to construct her defense; and she is unable to comprehend the significance of the trial."
The Sandiganbayan, however, demurred with the Ombudsman and gave preference to NCMH's medical report and corresponding testimony of the doctors that Ducut's condition "has not improved from the time the cases against her were ordered archived."
The court explained they took note of one of the doctors' testimony that Ducut's stroke in 2019 caused brain damage, which resulted in the progressive deterioration of her brain or vascular dementia.
"We understand the prosecution's skepticism when it underscored that while Ducut was recorded by the doctors as not being able to appraise court proceedings in the NCMH's July 2021 report, she was documented to be able to appraise court proceedings in the NCMH's 2023 update medical report," the Sandiganbayan said.
"However, as explained by Dr. Noche, vascular dementia patients like Ducut may recall things at times and forget them at other times. We find this explanation to be consistent with the previous testimonies of the doctors at NCH and Ducut's attending specialist in previous years," the court furthered.
Given the grounds, the Sandiganbayan thus ruled that Ducut was found to be incompetent to stand trial.
"Hence, this court maintains its earlier ruling that Ducut's failure to recall details and to coherently provide her lawyer with information necessary/relevant to constructing a defense impairs her counsel's ability to defend her position or rebut the other party's allegation," the court said.
The court, however, ordered Ducut's counsel to keep them posted on her medical condition at every instance she takes the necessary tests related to her medical condition.